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Tolls. To paraphrase the late Ronald Reagan, “There they go again.” The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which controls all the access from New Jersey to the nation’s largest city, has slapped trucks with higher tolls that will skyrocket 163% by 2015 to $105.

Truck sales remained strong during March, as fleets bought 17,308 heavy-duty vehicles, 33% more than they bought in March 2011. That’s the good news. 

Let’s hope that the current congressional recess gives several members of the House of Representatives an opportunity to rethink their positions on the nation’s infrastructure and leads them to help forge a strategy to fix our ailing roads and bridges.

The Mid-America Trucking Show, held every March in Louisville, Ky., is the nation’s largest trucking show and a wonderful barometer of what is going on in the industry.

Hallelujah, a new highway bill has actually managed to make it successfully through one of the houses of Congress.

The news from the oil patch just keeps getting worse and worse. As if $4-a-gallon diesel isn’t bad enough for the trucking industry, now comes a warning from the federal government that ultra-low-sulfur diesel may soon become scarcer and even more expensive in the Northeast because of a string of refinery closings.

Once again, fuel prices are in the worrisome range, just as most of us are beginning to accept that the recession is really over and better times are ahead.

Sometimes, half a loaf just isn’t enough. And that’s especially true when that half a loaf actually consists of something bad that the other guy didn’t do to you after he had threatened to do so.

This is shaping up as one of those “interesting years” for the trucking supply industry, with demand likely to at least match capacity in several key areas, including tractors, trailers and tires.

Well, it appears that trucking has at least made some progress in getting Congress to address some of the issues that are impeding the industry’s efforts to deliver the nation’s freight.