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The Trucking Industry: A Research Guide

This guide provides useful starting points, including books, journals, databases, legislation, government agencies, and associations, for in-depth research on the U.S. trucking industry, with a strong focus on autonomous trucking.

Introduction

Black and white photograph of a truck and trailer loaded with 9 tons newsprint paper rolls

Truck loaded with newsprint paper for the Sunday Evening Times parked in front of the Munsey Building, Washington, D.C. [ca. 1920] National Photo Company Collection. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

This guide provides background information on the trucking industry to include its history, and specifically, how autonomous trucking, as seen from a variety of business models, has the potential to transform an industry that is faced with driver shortages, highway safety issues, and a growing demand for goods in both cities and rural areas.

The guide is part of a three part series examining the business applications of recent advances in several areas including drone technology, artificial intelligence and autonomous trucking. Using an approach that combines an introduction and overview, each guide provides explanations for acronyms, definitions, industry codes, selected book titles, representative journals and articles as well as databases, current legislation, associations and the subject headings that were applied when researching these topics. The scope of each guide provides contextual material which enables users to not only examine pertinent materials; but more importantly, to develop a framework within which they can locate updated materials on their own.

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About the Business Section

Part of the Science & Business Reading Room at the Library of Congress, the Business Section is the starting point for conducting research at the Library of Congress in the subject areas of business and economics. Here, reference specialists in specific subject areas of business assist patrons in formulating search strategies and gaining access to the information and materials contained in the Library's rich collections of business and economics materials.