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As state and local governments gradually begin loosening stay-at-home orders issued to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, trucking industry experts are exploring how the industry can best respond to this next phase of the country’s response to the pandemic.

The country’s transportation agencies would receive a funding boost in a coronavirus economic relief measure House Democrats unveiled May 12.

The U.S. economy is likely in the midst of its deepest recession since the end of World War II, when modern records that tracked the nation’s gross domestic product and unemployment rates were standardized.

The record-long U.S. economic expansion is over after almost 11 years, with what’s likely to be the deepest recession in at least eight decades now underway.

Net U.S. trailer orders slipped below 7,600 in March as cancellations sliced the gross tally nearly in half, and production slowed, ACT Research reported.

The U.S. economy likely will shrink when first-quarter gross domestic product figures are released by the federal government’s Bureau of Economic Analysis on April 29.

The trucking industry will play a critical role in the development and implementation of plans to restart the country’s struggling economy, American Trucking Associations President Chris Spear said.

The U.S. gross domestic product will decline by more than 20% on an annualized basis in the second quarter as a result of the coronavirus and the economic shutdown, American Trucking Associations’ chief economist forecasts.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed an unprecedented $2.2 trillion economic rescue package into law March 27, after swift and near-unanimous action by Congress that will support businesses, rush resources to overburdened health care providers and help struggling families during the deepening coronavirus epidemic.

Trucking is handling increased demand and awaits a potential surge of pent-up activity because of the coronavirus, but what that means for the industry long term remains an open question.