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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.

America’s natural-gas boom has the potential to be another big win — if we work together to do it the right way. But if we don’t get it right, substituting natural gas for diesel in our longhaul trucking fleet could just as easily become a losing proposition for everyone concerned.

Over the past several years, government regulation that should be directed at every link of the supply chain has become increasingly focused on the trucking industry’s portion. If this continues, it quickly will become toxic to our industry and the economy as a whole.

Before adding one, two — or several hundred — trailers, a fleet manager needs to determine what equipment’s right for the application and to do it by knowing what’s out there, what’s right for an operation, and the most basic choice of all, whether to buy new or used.

With the dust settling from last month’s elections — and the voters returning to Washington a still-divided government — it is going to be incumbent upon our leaders to find areas of broad agreement to build upon if we are going to move forward as a nation.

Anyone who works with diesel fuel — stored or otherwise — knows that water comes with the territory.

The sold-out Natural Gas in Trucking Summit attests to the phenomenal growth of interest in compressed natural gas and liquefied natural-gas equipment from both sides of the loading dock (10-29, p. 6; 11-5, p. 4). Trucking company executives and shippers alike are aggressively analyzing what they see as the two major benefits of natural-gas equipment: lower fuel costs and reduced carbon emissions.

This column is an update of one I wrote for this publication a half-dozen years ago under the headline “Trucking Is Overtaxed” (2-6-06, p. 9). As the only slightly altered headline above says, taxes still cost the trucking industry far too much.

In speaking with hundreds of trucking company executives over the course of my career, I’ve noticed two distinctly different mentalities when discussing insurance: There are those who buy insurance, and there are those who manage risk.