“Even if you’re on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there” is one of my favourite sayings; good advice whether you’re in the business of trucking or in the business of publishing.

It’s advice we’ve put to use with this issue and plan on heeding throughout the rest of the year.

For the past 25 years or so I think it’s fair to say Truck News has been on the “right track” growing from a small homegrown dream to a national publication with the largest circulation of any publication in the Canadian trucking media.

The strong following it has developed in the industry over the years has been largely based on our commitment to providing the most industry news, first.

But along the way we’ve realized that readers have information needs beyond the news and we’ve strived to meet those needs too by providing longer features dealing with technical and legislative issues, stories of human interest, advice columns written by some of the industry’s most well known experts, statistics and even a monthly fiction series.

All well and good but so much material can be hard to locate in a publication that averages 80 pages or more per issue.

So starting with this issue we have gone to a full page of contents to make the search much easier. With our new contents page you will be able to more quickly and easily locate our features, departments, columns and other offerings.

Check it out on page 8 and let us know how you like it.

You will also notice a new feature in the editorial page: “Did you Know?”

For the last seven years we have been conducting a great deal of research to get a better understanding of the market. In fact, we conduct eight different surveys per year, reaching out to more than 5,000 transportation industry professionals annually to ensure we have a grasp of the issues they’re dealing with.

Conducting so much research over such a long period of time has given us a unique grasp of key industry trends. With each issue of Truck News from here on, we plan to share our findings with you.

The fiction series Mark Dalton: Owner/Operator, one of the most recognizable features in Truck News, has also undergone a facelift.

Thanks to the support of the good folks at Michelin North America (Canada) Inc., the series will now run on a full page with an eye-catching illustration.

Those are the most important changes for this month but we’re not done yet; expect to see more improvements to the look and feel of Truck News over the course of the year.

Nor are we stopping with the publication.

We know many of you also regularly visit www.trucknews.com. (In fact, our research shows that more than 70 per cent of you access the Internet even when on the road).

Over the next few months we have a slew of improvements and additions planned for our Web site, all designed to provide you with a greater variety of information, faster.

A lot of change, indeed, but success is no reason to stand still.

– Lou Smyrlis can be reached by phone at (416) 510-6881 or by e-mail at lou@TransportationMedia.ca.