When you dig into the real story of the Seventies’ trucking craze, you can trace much of it back to a surprising source: a whimsical TV commercial for bread.

As a Briton, I find this development astonishing. It repeats the mistakes of the 1970s Labor government, which essentially killed off the British auto industry. America should avoid the same mistake.

Counting down the year’s top stories: a look back at the states with the toughest hours enforcement, trucking in the 1970s, the U.S.’ first road-legal autonomous truck, owner-operator pay ...