Editorial: A Very Happy Old Year

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he past 12 months have been very good ones for trucking. Freight volumes have been high; fleets have been able to enforce rate increases because of tight capacity; and the on-again, off-again hours-of-service rules have fostered increased productivity for both drivers and equipment.

In fact, more than one veteran fleet executive has told Transport Topics reporters and editors that 2004 “was the best year I’ve ever seen.”

The bounty hasn’t been universal. Some trucking sectors, especially auto haulers, continue to face difficult times. And two well-known regional less-than-truckload carriers — Guaranteed Overnight Delivery and USF Red Star — closed their doors.

But most truckload and LTL carriers have seen significant profit margins and enough business to keep virtually all their trucks moving all the time during this year.

Thanks to a booming economy that generated so much trucking demand, fleets have been able to recoup a good portion of their increased costs, the result of sky-high levels of diesel fuel prices.

One excellent bellwether for how things have gone is the pace of new Class 8 truck sales. When 2004 began, most analysts, including the manufacturers, were predicting total sales would be in the 155,000- to 175,000-unit range. In fact, it now appears that U.S. Class 8 sales will end the year just a hair under 200,000. Most analysts are predicting that 2005 will be an even better year.

While fuel prices and rising interest rates could possibly dampen future economic performance, inflation remains in check and the falling dollar should inspire a surge in U.S. exports.

There were a few disappointments during 2004.

The federal appeals court decision to overturn the new hours-of-service rules could have been a major setback by undermining all of the gains trucking saw after the new rules were implemented.

Congress’ intervention, however, kept the rules in effect. And we are optimistic that the Department of Transportation’s revisions to comply with the court’s ruling will retain the productivity advances trucking made.

Also, the yearlong, and ultimately unsuccessful, tug-of-war over a new highway-spending bill was a disappointment. But now with the federal elections behind us, we can expect Congress to reach an agreement acceptable to the White House on how much money must be spent on the nation’s roads and bridges.

All in all, there’s good reason to be thankful for the year that is coming to a close, and at least as much reason to be hopeful that 2005 will be even better.

Happy holidays to all.

This story appeared in the Dec. 20 edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.