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This Opinion piece appears in the Jan. 6 print edition of Transport Topics.

This Opinion piece appears in the Dec. 16 print edition of Transport Topics.

It’s that time of the year again. The roads are filled with people hurrying to their holiday travel destinations and parties and trying to get gifts purchased.

The United States wants to do business with truck fleets that are more fuel-efficient, better for the environment and cheaper to operate.

For 25 years or longer, operating ratio (the ratio of operating expenses to operating revenue) has been a common measure of profitability and efficiency in the truckload transportation industry.

At No. 21 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers, Prime Inc. is a major trucking industry player. The company has more than 5,000 drivers, most of them trained by Prime’s safety director, Don Lacy. Many, however, have had additional coaching in weight control and exercise by fellow driver Siphiwe Baleka.

The Presidential Youth Fitness Program announced by the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition during a recent function in Washington, D.C., provides a model for fitness education that includes the use of a health-related fitness assessment and educational and motivational tools that support educators and encourage students to adopt an active lifestyle.

Excessive roadside service calls are a major symptom of a dysfunctional fleet operation, the sort whose pickup-and-delivery times are less than dependable and whose truck downtime is costing the head office big bucks for lost business and expensive repairs. And the No. 1 cause of roadside service calls is tires.

Every year at the Management Conference & Exhibition, American Trucking Associations selects a new chairman. I am immensely grateful for the opportunity to serve you all this year.