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A character on the 1980s television police drama “Hill Street Blues” had a great catchphrase: “Let’s Be Careful Out There.” They’re also words that ring true today for those who make their living traveling the highways.

Drivers, start your engines! It’s time once again for the National Truck Driving Championships, the annual competition where the skills of the nation’s best and brightest behind the wheel are put to the test. There are numerous individual categories in which drivers can take home a victory, but there can be only one Grand Champion. Who will it be this year?

In times of great change there are bound to be course corrections, as evidenced by recent developments related to innovations designed to advance the science of moving trucks down the road.

Ray Martinez, the newly installed head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, made the rounds last week, speaking first to trucking executives at American Trucking Associations’ midyear management meeting May 20 and then to lawmakers in the House of Representatives in Washington at a hearing by the Highways and Transit Subcommittee.

The adoption of federally mandated electronic logging devices has been a major transition for the trucking industry, but at this point it appears that most longhaul truckers are now using the technology to track their hours of service. While it’s still too soon to get a complete sense of where the industry stands with respect to ELD compliance, the early indications have been positive as enforcement tightens.

The decision by Uber to halt testing of its autonomous trucks in the wake of a fatal accident involving one of its pilot autonomous cars was a prudent move, and one that demonstrates how the relentless pace of technological innovation sometimes needs a pause.

Automated driving technology has been a consistently hot topic in the trucking industry over the past few years, but the glare of the spotlight was particularly bright last week at the Technology & Maintenance Council’s annual meeting and beyond.

It's cold outside, but trucking issues will heat up with the Transportation Research Board's annual meeting just around the corner.

In less than a month, the business of trucking will change. That’s the consensus of most when it comes to the federal mandate for use of electronic logging devices for the majority of truck drivers. The law is set to take effect Dec. 18, and we believe it’s a good thing for the industry.