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A few weeks ago, I was on a conference call organized by a transportation industry association. Invited on the call were woman- owned trucking companies gathered to address a Small Business Administration proposed rule change. After the call, a few people contacted me to ask why some on the call were not certified women- owned businesses nor certified Women-Owned Small Business.

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.

Approximately 10% of ocean cargo may cite an inaccurate weight, according to Loadstar. In 2015, an estimated 16.3 million out of 200.5 million TEUs, or industry- standard 20-foot-equivalent container units, of cargo were shipped without an accurate measurement, which speaks to an industrywide problem.

Documenting what you have done is a regular part of the trucking industry. At least it should be.

As officers of American Trucking Associations, we are tasked with guiding the professional management of ATA and representing ATA at our federation partners’ meetings and industry events. In recent years, we also have assigned an officer as steward of ATA’s most prominent and important programs. For example, First Vice Chairman Kevin Burch has overseen our industry image movement, Trucking Moves America Forward, while Second Vice Chairman Dave Manning is our officer contact for LEAD ATA, our emerging leaders program. As part of this effort, I have the honor to be the officer serving as liaison to the ATA Technology & Maintenance Council, or TMC.

There’s a big, patriotic sporting event coming this summer. Contenders fly the flags of the places and people they represent and proudly wear uniforms to demonstrate their pride and allegiance. Fans, families and the media all fix their eyes on one storyline: “Who will emerge as the finest in their field and take home all the glory?”

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.

Intermodal drivers are the essential link in the global and domestic supply chains, providing the first- and last-mile service for every load. A healthy intermodal network depends upon an adequate and ready supply of drayage drivers. This, in turn, is dependent on the ability of these drivers to operate in the most productive environment, be treated as professionals and with respect and earn a reasonable living for their efforts.

The logistics industry in the United States is rapidly evolving. Thirty or 40 years ago, we worked within our own borders to manufacture and produce many of our own goods. In the 1980s and 1990s, this quickly shifted to China and India, because production costs and labor were much cheaper overseas. Even with the costs of transportation, the United States could manufacture goods much easier in China than in our own homeland.