There are so many clichés about change—change is inevitable, the more things change the more they stay the same, change is in the air, and so on—that the word has become almost meaningless, a concept tossed around without any real thought. Still, change is indeed an essential part of life—sometimes feared, sometimes welcomed, but never avoided.
Fleet Owner has certainly seen its share of change over its more than 90 years of existence, but the pace seems to have picked up tremendously over the last decade or so.
Trucking has seen a revolution as electronics have reshaped its vehicles and our expectations about their performance. Data has dramatically changed the way fleets are run and what their customers expect in terms of service. Regulation has pushed and pulled change of all types, some of it good, some of it not so good. And societal pressures have reshaped the industry in some fundamental ways.
In every case, we’ve worked hard to keep you abreast of those changes and to show you how to best take advantage of them.
Change seems too mild a word for what we’ve witnessed in the world of media these last few years, and Fleet Owner has been right in the midst of it all. We’ve gone from being a well-respected business magazine to a specialized media outlet with a complete menu of digital products extending our reach and, I hope, usefulness.
It’s been exciting to launch those new products and see them thrive, but through it all, the magazine has remained at the core of what we offer the fleet executives and managers who make up our audience. And despite the undeniable strengths of digital media for immediate news and access to information, our audience surveys have told us clearly that you highly value the printed magazine you get every month.
And so the issue you have in hand represents the next change in the long life of Fleet Owner. The redesign of the magazine, which was six months in the making, is intended to better reflect the wide range of subjects covered in every issue, while making it easier to navigate and easier to read.
It’s also fitting that the magazine is leading a refresh of the entire Fleet Owner brand. Over the next few months, we’ll be rolling out a new look for the website that will be followed later in the year by an entirely new web platform with greatly expanded features and utility for anyone running a truck fleet.
We’ve also just launched new technology for our newsletters that acknowledges the continued growth of handheld devices and will automatically adapt to the screen you choose, whether it be a computer monitor, a tablet or a smartphone.
And there will be more to come, much more.
Despite the visible changes in the way the magazine looks, we’ve been very careful to preserve our long tradition of providing you with the information and analysis that helps you do the best job possible.
No matter what the format, our goal is as it always has been—to be the “must read” in your day, the source of business information you can count on to keep you up to date on the latest developments in all aspects of trucking and to help you prepare for a future of change.
