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Last week, we cheered the apparent demise of a federal regulatory provision regarding hours of service. Now we’d like to salute a positive development: a recent discussion on truck safety before a Senate subcommittee.

Coming soon to a theater near you: How to build roads and bridges. The American Society of Civil Engineers last week screened a documentary titled, “Dream Big: Engineering Our World,” which spotlights efforts to encourage young people to pursue careers in engineering. Included in that mix are bridge and road design, fields that — if recent data are any indication — will require expertise for years to come.

We have recently participated in a lot of discussion and activity about autonomous and platoon trucking, and while some of it has an exhilarating, almost science fiction feel to it — especially the in-person demonstrations — there also are aspects of it that are, well, commonplace.

Let us pause for a moment and consider the number zero. As in, during a recent test, 150 heavy-duty tractors racked up 3 million U.S. highway miles and there were zero rear-end collisions.

The opening days of the sad soap opera being played out on Capitol Hill apparently did little damage to the nation’s freight distribution system, according to what industry executives told our reporters last week.

Yes, American Trucking Associations is a staunch supporter of the federal mandate requiring electronic logging devices to monitor hours-of-service compliance for the nation’s truck drivers.

Highway safety is one of the trucking industry’s top priorities, and we have long supported the industry’s efforts to employ technology in enhancing the safety of our employees’ workplace and the safety of everyone who shares our nation’s highways.

After carefully weighing the pros and cons in the sometimes overheated debate over whether the federal government should mandate electronic logging devices in heavy-duty trucks, we unequivocally support a requirement for electronic logging to monitor hours-of-service compliance.

We were disappointed to see the federal appellate court’s ruling overturning the requirement that some motor carriers install electronic recording devices to monitor drivers’ compliance with the hours-of-service rule.

Legislation introduced by two prominent members of the Senate Finance Committee could go a long way toward taking the air out of some politicians’ stampede to raise short-term revenue by leasing out or selling public highways and other public assets.