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There was an unmistakable message that was delivered loud and clear at this year’s Management Conference & Exhibition: It’s time to raise the profile of the trucking industry with politicians and with the public.

As the industry gathers for American Trucking Associations’ 2013 Management Conference & Exhibition this week in Orlando, Fla., there is much good to reflect about from the past 12 months, and there are definite reasons to look forward to a brighter 2014.

More proof that the partial government shutdown sparked by the political impasse in Washington isn’t a “victimless crime” comes in the form of our story that U.S. military business with trucking fleets has come to a virtual standstill.

The opening days of the sad soap opera being played out on Capitol Hill apparently did little damage to the nation’s freight distribution system, according to what industry executives told our reporters last week.

For countless years, we have written about the United States’ dire need of a long-term transportation funding source.

We applaud the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for its decisions last week to scrap its proposed rule on truck driver training standards and to proceed with a formal rulemaking on sleep apnea testing.

The results from the recent Roadcheck safety blitz by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance provide more evidence of the improvements the nation’s motor carriers are making in safety compliance.

Not so long ago, the primary concern we had about fuel prices each year as the leaves in many parts of the nation began to change was that refineries would divert some of their processing capacity to home heating oil production.

This is an excellent time to stop and remember all of the people who work together to make trucking the thriving, core industry that is so vital to keeping the nation’s economy humming along.

It appears that the death of the nation’s economic recovery has been greatly exaggerated, at least up until now.