Throughout Donald Trump’s campaign for president, slashing regulations was a core theme. Many of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees are long-standing opponents of a heavily regulated business environment. I welcome this time to catch our breath. The rate of regulatory change in the trucking industry has been too rapid for many businesses to keep pace.

Truck tonnage dropped 2.8% in February year-over-year, reversing January’s positive momentum, but American Trucking Associations’ chief economist maintains that freight activity remained strong considering February 2016 was a record-setting month.

U.S. trailer orders in February pushed past 26,000, up 24% year-over-year, as dealers restocked and fleets continued to extend orders, experts said, adding that industry backlog is below last year’s pace and freight demand has not fully returned.

Readers discuss the regulatory side of entry-level driver training and the best way to maximize profit is containing costs.

Last week, we cheered the apparent demise of a federal regulatory provision regarding hours of service. Now we’d like to salute a positive development: a recent discussion on truck safety before a Senate subcommittee.

Salaries for truckload drivers rose at the low rate of 0.04 point in the fourth quarter year-over-year, according to the latest National Transportation Institute index (or 0.03% on a preliminary basis), the slowest in 2016.