Editorial

Florence is bearing down on the southeastern United States, bringing sustained heavy rains and wind — and the potential for significant damage.

It’s National Truck Driver Appreciation Week, the time of year when motor carriers and others connected to trucking make a special effort to recognize the professionals who keep the freight moving. Throughout the week, special events will take place to honor them, and many of those events will feature food. Lots of it. So let’s hope the industry’s drivers have a hearty appetite!

There’s been a lot of talk, and a good bit of hand-wringing, but last week there was finally a breakthrough on a renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement. As of this writing, a deal only existed between the United States and Mexico. But Canada was at the table.

The job of the truck driver is not an easy one.

July orders for new trailers shattered a record that had stood for 24 years. On top of that, sales of Class 8 vehicles during the month topped 20,000, the second-highest total of the year. So while it’s clear there’s going to be a lot of new equipment on the road next year, let’s hope we can find enough drivers to keep all of it moving.

Drivers, start your engines! It’s time once again for the National Truck Driving Championships, the annual competition where the skills of the nation’s best and brightest behind the wheel are put to the test. There are numerous individual categories in which drivers can take home a victory, but there can be only one Grand Champion. Who will it be this year?

In times of great change there are bound to be course corrections, as evidenced by recent developments related to innovations designed to advance the science of moving trucks down the road.

It’s quarterly earnings season, a time of year when the Transport Topics business reporting team is immersed in revenue figures and profit-and-loss numbers. Based on the numbers for the second quarter, the industry is doing pretty well.

It’s our hope that the executive order President Donald Trump signed last week to create the National Council for the American Worker will lead to an influx of new talent across the industry’s spectrum — from behind the wheel to behind the scenes.

Rhode Island’s controversial trucks-only tolling program must face a judge’s gavel, as a group including American Trucking Associations and several fleets is suing the state over the plan.