Perspective

Slowly but surely, trucking is emerging from recession, and trucking company leaders all over the country are anxiously watching the bottom line, determined not to falter now that the sun is finally coming out.

Without a doubt, however, the single most dangerous thing our employees do in the course of our workday is commuting to and from the job.

Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater!” We have all heard this saying at some point in our lives. I was reminded of it recently, when I was researching the 2012 year-end W2 and 1099 reporting requirements.

Qualified diesel technicians are getting harder to find, a situation the transportation trade press has lamented for the past decade with headlines such as “Who Will Fix Your Trucks?”

The vision is to have almost every truck equipped with shore-power-friendly systems and to have ubiquitous shore power so that anywhere truckers think about idling for any length of time, they have an alternative.

Advanced transportation management systems (TMS) have long provided automation and functionality that help plan, optimize, manage and execute transportation more accurately and productively than — to be blunt — a human being.

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.