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This year in Orlando, Fla.,Ìýthe National Truck Driving Championships produced another crop of deserving winners, fitting role models for the men and women who move America’s economy in their rigs every day of every year.

Just when it seemed that the worst of the mayhem caused by Washington’s bizarre handling of the debt-limit crisis appears to have passed — as Congress broke for its summer recess — enter the latest peculiar chapter.

The latest tonnage report from American Trucking Associations shows that freight levels in June were 6.8% higher than they were a year ago, the biggest gain in five months.

Class 8 truck sales and orders have continued to outpace the expectations of analysts and company executives, creating a round of hiring at truck plants and a healthy backlog of orders that should keep the plants busy for months to come.

This issue of Transport Topics includes our extremely popular Top 100 ranking of the largest for-hire motor carriers in the United States and Canada.

Congratulations to the U.S. Department of Transportation for finalizing the cross-border trucking program with Mexico.

It’s sort of a good problem to have, shortages. It’s a problem that means times are good. Suppliers of components that go into Class 8 trucks say they’re barely able to keep up with demand, as truck manufacturers shift into high gear to meet carriers’ desire to replace their aging vehicles.

Imagine a time when a statewide trucking organization, in order to help its state government pay for necessary improvements to roads and bridges, supports a proposal that the state float a bond issue to cover the work and volunteers to have its members pay most of the bills for the work through a jump in the diesel fuel tax.

When American Trucking Associations and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association — two groups frequently at the opposite ends of trucking industry issues — are able to agree on something, you know it’s a pretty momentous occasion.

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And recently the two trucking groups agreed to take on an issue that’s close to our heart: truck driver safety.