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As reported in Transport Topics in early December 2016, (12-12, pp. 4, 43) American Trucking Associations President Chris Spear told a roundtable of lawmakers at a Senate hearing in Washington, D.C., that the Transportation Worker Identification Credential, or TWIC, represents the future of secure transportation.

Aftertreatment systems are unequivocally becoming the Achilles’ heel for all fleets and a leading contender for high cost, load delays and asset downtime. However, there is much more to the root cause of this escalating issue.

The new year often brings changes. And rarely has that been as true as this year, as we have just inaugurated a new president who appears poised to change Washington. It’s also a time of renewed focus, to reflect on where we are and look forward and position for success.

You don’t have to be a diesel mechanic to know that extended idling is bad for business. Frequent or prolonged idling increases emissions, wastes fuel and puts unnecessary wear on your engine. That’s why, due in large part to increasingly strict emissions standards, the trucking industry has seen a dramatic increase in idle-reduction technologies.

You can’t work in the trucking industry for long without realizing the interconnectedness of the trucking world — goods with communities, roads with ports, airports and railways, regulations across international and provincial borders and municipal boundaries, you name it. Another connection may not be immediately apparent: Canada’s National Trucking Week and “Jake” brakes.

Idaho’s Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicle program, or GARVEE, recently wrapped up, after a decade of investment in the state’s roads and bridges. Along the way, the GARVEE program transformed the state’s infrastructure in a way we haven’t seen since the interstate system was built through Idaho in the 1960s.

This Opinion piece appears in the Feb. 17 print edition of Transport Topics.

There’s no real mystery as to why otherwise intelligent fleet operators so often negotiate full-service leases using only big, round numbers. Reason No. 1 is that they simply don’t know their actual, detailed maintenance costs.

Given today’s growing equipment demand and ongoing economic uncertainty, many businesses are finding noncash equipment financing to be a key acquisition strategy.

Over the past several years, government regulation that should be directed at every link of the supply chain has become increasingly focused on the trucking industry’s portion. If this continues, it quickly will become toxic to our industry and the economy as a whole.