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March is almost always an exciting time in the trucking industry, and this year it’s particularly true, with four of the industry’s top trade shows each displaying those tantalizing first glimpses of renewed growth.

The word out of the Truckload Carriers Association annual meeting last week is that freight capacity is already beginning to look pinched, even as the number of people applying for driver jobs is falling sharply.

American Trucking Associations’ request to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration that it delay implementation of its latest iteration of a new hours-of-service rule for a few months — until a federal appeals court has ruled on ATA’s challenge — was very straightforward.

Well, at least we’re getting lip service related to fixing the nation’s ailing and neglected infrastructure network. Now, if we can just get some concrete action.

Here’s a double-barreled dose of worrisome news: Trucking wasted some $27 billion in fuel and lost productivity during 2011 due to congestion in the nation’s largest urban areas; fuel prices spiked in the most recent survey by the Department of Energy, 9.5 cents a gallon for diesel and 18.1 cents for gasoline.

It’s nice to hear from the new chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee that he recognizes what dire straits the Highway Trust Fund is in and that he’s open to all suggestions as to how to fix it.

The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute has its tin cup out and is in definite need of a few bucks. And we think it would be in trucking’s interest to make sure UMTRI finds the needed money — and quickly. 

About one-third of the truck occupants who died in crashes during 2011 weren’t wearing a seat belt, according to new data coming from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

The new “captains” of the nation’s trucking industry — namely the 19 freshly appointed members of America’s Road Team — are now on the job.

While the solution that Washington “crafted” to the looming “fiscal cliff” was far from perfect, it seems to have gotten the job done.