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One thing we’ll start to hear more about in the coming months is the next administration’s first 100 days in the Oval Office. It’s an opportunity to articulate a vision and begin executing new goals. As ATA’s new president and CEO, I’m nearing the end of my first hundred days in office and it has been an exciting time for me and our leadership team. There have been meetings to take and calls to make and all that goes into starting a new job, but we’ve hit the ground running to start securing victories for the trucking industry.

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.

Many years ago, when I was new to transportation safety, our team crafted five tenets for safety success: