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MIAMI — Florida residents picked store shelves clean and long lines formed at gas pumps Sept. 6 as Hurricane Irma, a Category 5 monster with potentially catastrophic winds of 185 mph, steamed toward the Sunshine State and a possible direct hit on the Miami metropolitan area of nearly 6 million people.

The empty runway stretching before Mark Hendrickson extends so far that its edges vanish in the heat shimmer of a broiling Central Valley afternoon.

Winston Mullings jumped into action after Hurricane Harvey to deliver to those in need, but the unimaginable happened in Houston: Floodwaters overpowered his truck on a major highway.

Workers in the trucking and other industries that move people and goods could find themselves squeezed out of those jobs by the rise of self-driving trucks.

Even while Hurricane Harvey lashed Houston, trucking companies navigated whatever roads were available for rescue and supply missions in response to the Texas Trucking Association’s call for volunteers.

The December mandate on electronic logging devices would not be carried out under a proposal recently added to a fiscal 2018 funding bill in the House.

An aftermarket device that attaches to the sides of a tractor-trailer successfully prevented a midsize car from sliding underneath the trailer in a 40 mph crash test, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety officials said. See crash test video.

TT's Seth Clevenger and Eric Miller discuss the impact of the Aug. 28 announcement that CVSA will employ a "phased-in" enforcement of the electronic logging device mandate that takes effect Dec. 18, 2017.

Commercial vehicle inspectors will issue citations to motor carriers operating vehicles without electronic logging devices beginning Dec. 18 but will not place vehicles out of service until April 1.