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The American trucking industry depends on drivers: a simple statement but one that bears repeating. As president of American Trucking Associations, I have the great privilege of representing 3.5 million professional truck drivers, working on their behalf in Washington to make our industry better, to make their jobs easier.

Throughout Donald Trump’s campaign for president, slashing regulations was a core theme. Many of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees are long-standing opponents of a heavily regulated business environment. I welcome this time to catch our breath. The rate of regulatory change in the trucking industry has been too rapid for many businesses to keep pace.

The electronic logging device mandate for tracking hours of service has brought a lot of attention to truck telematics, and many experts are providing advice on how to prepare for that transition. But one aspect of telematics that few are addressing is how underutilized most existing systems are. In my estimate, only three in 10 fleets are utilizing their telematics system to the max.

In 2008, I wrote an article where I described a future scenario in which a driver in a truck is leading a convoy of several driverless trucks. In 2011, I began predicting that we would have autonomous cars on the market and on the roadways by 2020. These predictions seem to be turning out better than my 2007 prediction that Apple would not get much market share in the cellphone business.

As reported in Transport Topics in early December 2016, (12-12, pp. 4, 43) American Trucking Associations President Chris Spear told a roundtable of lawmakers at a Senate hearing in Washington, D.C., that the Transportation Worker Identification Credential, or TWIC, represents the future of secure transportation.

Brokers, freight forwarders and nonvessel operating common carriers, or NVOCC, are required by federal law to carry a surety bond in the event they fail to pay the carrier that performs the move on the shipments they broker. On Dec. 1, 2013, the $75,000 broker bond went into effect — up from the previous bond requirement of $10,000.

Each night, thousands of truck drivers across the country find themselves in a horrible game of “musical chairs” — searching for parking spaces to take their mandated 10-hour rest period. This occurs because of a major shortage for truck parking, which has not kept up with the volume and growth of trucks traveling across our country each day.

I read the chairman’s profile of Kevin Burch (10-10, p. 1), and quite frankly, he is a man after my own industry heart — and others should feel the same way.

The new year often brings changes. And rarely has that been as true as this year, as we have just inaugurated a new president who appears poised to change Washington. It’s also a time of renewed focus, to reflect on where we are and look forward and position for success.