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While new technology is driving trucking forward, the industry still needs the expertise of service professionals to keep tomorrow’s equipment running smoothly.

With quarterly earnings underway, we’re getting a look at how the industry fared during the first three months of 2019, a year which some have predicted could mark the beginning of a cooldown from last year’s red-hot freight market. Turns out the start of this year for freight haulers wasn’t marked so much by a cooldown as it was cold and snowy weather.

The launch of the Nikola Two tractor just days ahead of Earth Day — April 22 — was a fitting and, perhaps, deliberate gesture by the company to spotlight the trucking industry’s progress in improving its level of environmental responsibility.

The notion of being a “hands-on” worker still carries weight in professional circles. Increasingly, though, some of the things that once were decidedly “hands-on” are becoming much more “hands-off” thanks to the march of technological innovation.

Journalists love it when big news breaks. As last week drew to a close, two significant deals involving major players in the commercial truck industry made headlines and landed on the front page of the April 1 issue of Transport Topics.

The importance of mining repair data for information that can help improve the performance of motor carriers’ equipment was a continuous message during presentations at the annual meeting of the Technology & Maintenance Council of American Trucking Associations recently from companies across the spectrum of industry suppliers. They either introduced or updated products designed to wring more efficiencies out of freight operations.

Across three industry events in the span of just a few days last week, the evolution of automated driving was front and center, with everyone from government leaders to technology innovators looking ahead to how — and at what pace — automation might someday reshape the trucking industry.

The trucking industry has been through quite a period of transformation during the past 12 months. Perhaps it’s time to take a breather — and take stock of where we are. As 2018 draws to a close, things aren’t as hectic as they were one year ago, but change still persists.

The Nov. 26 announcement from General Motors Co. that it plans to shut down five factories and lay off thousands of workers sent shock waves through the government and business communities, and with good reason.

In times of great change there are bound to be course corrections, as evidenced by recent developments related to innovations designed to advance the science of moving trucks down the road.