Perspective

The slogans on signs held by opponents of the cross-border trucking provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement have included statements such as “Nafta Kills!”

Cargo theft is on the rise, and, thanks to various reporting groups, we carriers, shippers and consignees are now able to track theft patterns and take steps to reduce our chances of being involved in such incidents.

Will the old saw, “third time’s the charm,” turn out to be true for the truck safety tax-credit bill? That’s what carriers of all sizes are hoping for — although the larger fleets may be hoping a tad harder than their smaller colleagues.

Most truckers know that falling off a trailer can result in a cracked skull, but they also need to know that knees, ankles, hips and backs also can be damaged by a jump from the cab — injuries that can make the difference between trucking as a long-term career or just a job for the young.

There is no question that the trucking industry in the past decade has made substantial progress in its embrace and use of technology to achieve best practices for every vital function and process from fleet management, dispatch and accounting to sophisticated tracking, business intelligence and almost any task you can name.

It is a distinct honor to be able to represent America’s motor carriers and the employees and independent contractors working on behalf of those companies.   I have appreciated the leadership that has been provided by Barbara Windsor, Tommy Hodges and all the fine chairmen who have preceded them.

When we gathered in Phoenix last year, I said I was hopeful that, like the mythical bird the city was named for, our industry was preparing to rise from the ashes of the deep recession we’d just fought through and that, when we came together in Grapevine, as with many things in Texas, things would be “bigger and better” for our industry.

There was a day when the word “green” was used mostly to describe a paint color, money or grass. Today, it has new meanings relating to the quality of the environment, our fleets’ effect upon it and the challenges fleet managers face to meet local, state and federal regulations that target everything from pollution control to managing hazardous waste.

It has been almost a year since we gathered in Phoenix, and while it seems that the time has just flown by, as we prepare to come together in Grapevine, Texas, the issues we face now are identical to the issues we faced then.

Trucking today faces one of the worst driver shortages ever, a situation experts say will only get worse, while at the same time, national unemployment recently topped 15%.