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There’s no denying that technology is rapidly changing the shipping and logistics industry. These changes are making warehousing more efficient, dispatching faster, planning easier and communications smoother — and that’s just the tip of the technological iceberg.

It was about this time last year that I had the privilege of addressing you in these pages as I started my year as chairman of American Trucking Associations.

We often fail to notice things until there’s a problem. When you go to the light switch, you expect when you hit it that the lights will come on.

When a motor carrier uses the services of an independent contractor, the latter generally is covered by the motor carrier’s liability policy when a claim occurs while operating for business.

Two sets of changes in the way freight is moved in the United States will require fleet operators to take a fresh look at transportation strategy and fleet utilization.

It was not that long ago that the land border between Canada and the United States was viewed as a serious impediment to the secure and efficient movement of goods and people between the world’s largest bilateral trading partners.

A top box-office movie this winter was “Identity Thief,” a lightweight comedy about a guy chasing a woman across the country after she stole his identity. The movie’s message was simple: Getting your identity stolen can be funny.

As we close the book on 2012, I think most economists and trucking executives would agree that while growth is preferable to the alternative, the relatively anemic growth we saw last year is certainly nothing to get excited about.

The proposed increase in surety requirements would eliminate at least 75% of the transportation broker industry.

In the end, your trucking operation’s success will be predicated, not on what analysts say, pro or con, or what Wall Street does tomorrow or next week but on your own strategies for controlling variable costs, executing the plan and staying firmly on course.