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This was a year of generally steady, but modest, gains for the economy as a whole — and trucking in particular — as detailed in this issue of Transport Topics.

Last week’s announcement by Daimler Trucks North America that it will move production of a line of transmissions and a line of turbochargers from Germany to a plant it runs outside Detroit is just the latest development in a trend that has become known as “onshoring.”

Concerns about the “fiscal cliff” seem to be spreading into lots of unexpected places, including the heart of the trucking industry.

We came. We watched and listened. And we learned. The amount of information that was flowing from the stage during the first day of American Trucking Associations’ Summit on Natural Gas in Trucking last week was prodigious.

The amazing response to American Trucking Associations’ Summit on Natural Gas in Trucking reaffirms just how interested the industry is in finding a cheaper, dependable alternative fuel source.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has taken a good step in its drive to control “reincarnated carriers,” troubled companies that essentially seek to shed their safety and compliance woes by repainting the company name on their vehicles.

The people have spoken. And the answer to the question, “Who will lead us in Washington?” is — depending on your point of view — “all of the above” or “none of the above.”

Once again, Mother Nature has shown us that man’s best-laid plans are subject to her whims. The devastating superstorm named Sandy traveled up the U.S. Atlantic coast until it got near New Jersey, and then took a sharp left turn late on Oct. 29.

The “fiscal cliff” lurks as a major potential danger, and not far down the road. The danger is to us all, in the form of higher taxes, spending cuts in vital areas and what a failure to act might mean to the country’s psyche.

Last week’s Management Conference & Exhibition in Las Vegas gave the nation’s trucking industry much food for thought — and action.