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The struggles of the nation’s trucking fleet to attract and retain qualified drivers have been well-documented in the pages of Transport Topics for many years now.

An awful lot has changed over the years in the trucking industry. And, like in so many industries today, the pace of that change seems to be escalating every year.

It looks like the recent run of lower fuel prices is at an end. As we report on p. 1, the average price of a gallon of diesel fuel rose 2.2 cents last week to $3.844 after 11 weeks of declining or steady prices.

New data clearly support what many of us have been saying for months: The new changes to the federal hours-of-service rule for truck drivers are reducing productivity, undermining service levels and raising costs.

There was a time when it was a simple matter to understand the differences between a trucking fleet and a logistics provider.

In these days of diminished expectations in our federal government, we should surely be happy to find that a bipartisan House panel has managed to find unanimity on at least one topic of interest to us: that the nation’s freight system is vital to the future well-being of the country.

There was an unmistakable message that was delivered loud and clear at this year’s Management Conference & Exhibition: It’s time to raise the profile of the trucking industry with politicians and with the public.

As the industry gathers for American Trucking Associations’ 2013 Management Conference & Exhibition this week in Orlando, Fla., there is much good to reflect about from the past 12 months, and there are definite reasons to look forward to a brighter 2014.

More proof that the partial government shutdown sparked by the political impasse in Washington isn’t a “victimless crime” comes in the form of our story that U.S. military business with trucking fleets has come to a virtual standstill.

The results from the recent Roadcheck safety blitz by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance provide more evidence of the improvements the nation’s motor carriers are making in safety compliance.