With another year coming to a close, we look back with some relief that freight demand showed steady growth despite endless obstacles coming from Washington, D.C.
As we detail throughout this issue, most economic indicators remained positive in 2013, bolstering tonnage levels 5.5% through the first 10 months.
That growth was achieved despite political gridlock that led to a 16-day partial government shutdown in October. Before that, in July, there were new hours-of-service rules for drivers that many fleets said immediately cut into their productivity and raised costs.
Shortly after the shutdown ended, American Trucking Associations President Bill Graves said, "Traditional alliances the business community has had within the Republican Party are necessarily going to need to be re-evaluated."
In probably the biggest blow to trucking during 2013, a federal appeals court sided with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's HOS rule changes, including the requirement that drivers take a 30-minute break after driving eight consecutive hours.
The court rejected arguments from ATA against new restrictions on when drivers can reset their weekly work schedules following 34 hours off, but also maintained the 11-hour driving day.
ATA chalked up a major victory when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned portions of the Port of Los Angeles' Clean Truck Program related to parking and placarding. Likewise, a lower court issued an injunction permanently barring the port from attempting to force drivers who enter the port to be company employees.
ATA contended that such provisions are unrelated to the port's objective of improving air quality.
The year brought several other changes, including the confirmation of Charlotte, N.C., Mayor Anthony Foxx as Secretary of Transportation and the elevation of U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) to chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Those are likely to be names we hear from quite often as we move into 2014, a year that already is shaping up to be extremely busy.
The need for a new highway funding law to replace MAP-21, which expires on Sept. 30, is certain to be center stage through much of 2014.
Add to that the midterm elections, the end of the three-year U.S.-Mexico trucking pilot program and countless new rules from FMCSA, including one on electronic logging devices, and the next 12 months could help determine the future of trucking for many years to come.
Before all that begins, however, maybe it is best we take a moment simply to enjoy how far the industry has come since the depths of the recession only a few years ago.
This Editorial appears in the Dec. 23 & 30 print edition of Transport Topics.
