OK, let’s get this out of the way first: I am a hardcore sci-fi junkie. I’ve got an office filled with Star Trek and Star Wars tchotchkes (that’s Yiddish for ‘trinkets’ and basically worthless stuff, just in case you are ever teleported to the planet Trivial Pursuit) along with all kinds of dog-eared science fiction novels on my bookshelves.

That being said, I want to leave you with a brief thought about the Spielberg blockbuster movie ‘Transformers’ due to reach theatres this summer on July 4. The hero of this movie — the leader of the ‘good robots’ known as ‘Autobots’ — is named Optimus Prime. I grew up watching him in a million different schlocky animated TV shows, and one thing always stuck in my mind about him: he’s a truck.

Originally a cabover tractor, Optimus is now going to be portrayed on the big screen as a twin-stack conventional Class 8 — when he is not in robot form kicking butt and saving the universe, that is.

So, why is this even remotely interesting to the trucking community? I say it again: he is the HERO and the LEADER of the good guys. You don’t see those two words associated with the image of trucks anywhere in the mainstream media today, much less in the movies. I’ve used this space to comment on this before — largely in reference to the 30 year anniversary of ‘Smokey & The Bandit’ and the negative aftertaste it left with this industry in its wake.

So now we’re going to have a gigantic, intergalactic movie hero that’s going to spend part of his time in the shape of a Class 8 rig — and, knowing Spielberg, this rig is going to look good, too. It’s a positive trucking nod that’s rare these days — and I’ll be in the front row July 4, giant popcorn bucket at my side, to see if it hopefully plays out that way on the big screen.

I don’t know about you, but when I start looking at all the economic data and analysis produced in this country on a daily basis, my eyes start glazing over and my head begins to hurt. That’s a snarky way of saying that it’s hard to figure out in ENGLISH what shifts in housing starts or the consumer price index mean for the trucking industry.

That being said, here are the names of three economists you need to keep handy: Martin Regalia, Bob Costello, and Jim Meil. Regalia is the chief economist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Costello serves in that same function for the American Trucking Association, while Meil is the chief economist for Eaton Corp.

These guys are superb at what they do, but more importantly, they make it all understandable in layman’s terms — even the very complicated stuff. That’s why you see their names pop up on our web site and in our pages here at FleetOwner pretty often.

And all three have a talent for working humor into their presentations, so hearing them ‘live’ is actually better than reading the reports they produce.

Trucking executives and fleet managers will likely have more access to Meil and Costello simply because the bulk of Eaton’s business is truck-related and Costello, of course, represents trucking’s biggest lobbying organization. Regalia deals with U.S. business on a much broader scale, so he only tuns up occasionally at trucking functions.

While Costello is ostensibly the economist for truckers, bear in mind he’s limited in many ways by anti-trust laws from giving a complete economic picture for trucking, especially when it comes to the impact economic tides and turns have on rates.

In any event, if you see any of their names pop up on the agenda of a convention or conference you plan to attend in the future, make sure you go hear what they say — I promise you, you’ll get very clear, concise, and useful picture of how overall economic trends impact your business.