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When Mike Hancock surveys Kentucky’s highway network, he casts a worried eye on its major freight routes — interstates 65, 71 and 75.

Orders for new Class 8 trucks jumped 32% in September from a year ago to 24,900, the highest September in eight years, ACT Research Co. reported.

Truckload driver turnover hit a two-year high on both a year-over-year and sequential basis in the second quarter, American Trucking Associations reported last week, as the migration to more attractive jobs inside and outside trucking accelerated.

Conflicting appeals and state court and National Labor Relations Board decisions on when independent contractors should be reclassified as employees ultimately could help persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to review the controversial issue that some carriers say threatens the contractor business model.

An advance notice of the proposed new rule on minimum insurance coverage for carriers is expected to be published soon, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has announced.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Duane Long has run everything from an array of companies with more than 2,000 employees to a logistics firm with 40 trucks, a breadth of experience that he brings to his new role as chairman of American Trucking Associations.

SAN DIEGO — Increases in truck tonnage and freight rates should make trucking executives happy, but the long-festering driver shortage has mushroomed to such a critical level that fleet managers meeting here said they either have made or may soon make radical changes in how they operate.

SAN DIEGO — A majority of Americans perceive truck drivers to be safer than other motorists, an indication the industry’s image may be more positive than previously thought, according to a recent poll.

SAN DIEGO — Leaders of American Trucking Associations meeting here said they have put themselves in the best position to successfully see long overdue highway funding and other legislation passed, while preventing what they view as an explosion of burdensome regulations.