Industry officials said they are more than 80% of the way to raising $1 million during the first year of their “Trucking Moves America Forward” image campaign. John Conkin of GE Capital and Kevin Burch of Jet Express made the announcement at the conclusion of American Trucking Associations’ Management Conference & Exhibition on Oct. 7.

Too often in life we dwell on the negative. I know that I’m guilty of it, and I’m sure many of you are, as well. At the end of the day, when we go home and our families ask, “How was your day?” too often the first response is the annoyances of a commute or aggravations of our jobs.

It feels like, this year in particular, too often the media have been dwelling on the negative when it comes to our industry. High-profile incidents draw a lot of attention and ultimately are used to tar not just our industry but the hardworking men and women at its heart — the American truck driver.

Connecticut truck driver Paul Brandon has never hauled to Tucson, Tucumcari, or Tonopah. But over the course of his 34-year career in the industry, he has, as the song goes, driven nearly every kind of rig that’s ever been made. And over 1.1 million miles, according to Brandon’s employer Fedex Brandon, has never had an accident. This is one of the reasons the 55-year-old father of two just earned the title as one of the country’s greatest truck drivers at the annual National Truck Driving Championships, sponsored by the American Trucking Association.

Trucking’s lifeblood is quality professionals — the drivers and law enforcement officers — American Trucking Associations President Bill Graves said Thursday during the Breakfast of Champions at the start of the National Truck Driving Championships. “Annually, 9 billion tons of freight are moved by trucks over nearly 400 billion miles,” Graves told more than 1,000 people at NTDC, which is held simultaneously with the inspectors championships.