���ϳԹ���

One year since the COVID-19 pandemic caused vehicle travel and associated fuel tax revenue to plummet, recovery has been on a slow but positive trajectory.

It was crucial for commercial vehicle suppliers to be identified as essential while they tried to find their way through COVID-19 when it first spread a year ago and deepened afterward, an executive with a leading supplier trade group said.

Logistics companies that diversified, were nimble and leveraged data-driven technologies had the best chance to continue operating throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

“It was definitely a strange year for inspectors,” said Kerri Wirachowsky, director of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s roadside inspection program. “In the beginning of the pandemic, a lot of agencies just stopped doing inspections completely, only stopping vehicles if they saw an imminent issue,” she said.

American Trucking Associations President Chris Spear acknowledged the adversity the industry faced during the historic year.

American Association of Port Authorities CEO Chris Connor told Transport Topics the biggest takeaway from the coronavirus pandemic is the essential nature of ports.

Victoria Sheehan, president of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, said technology made an important difference in state transportation departments’ pandemic operations.

Economists predict the United States economy broadly and the trucking economy specifically are poised for a rocket-like recovery in the second half of 2021, propelled by $1.9 trillion in federal stimulus and millions of Americans who will receive COVID-19 vaccinations and return to restaurants, ballparks and theaters.

Applications for U.S. jobless benefits unexpectedly rose last week, to the highest since mid-February, underscoring how the labor market is recovering in fits and starts.

Amazon .com Inc. has been ordered to close a facility outside Toronto for two weeks as public health officials worry about rising COVID-19 cases inside the complex.