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The Department of Transportation has set meetings on Feb. 21 and 22 on changes in drug and alcohol testing rules that affect truck drivers.

In the news: Xtra reports lower 1Q; USFreightways’ 4Q earnings slide; Covenant reports weaker 4Q, cautions about 2001; and more.

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said U.S. economic growth is near zero, something many trucking companies have already been seeing in freight shipments.

Labor Secretary-nominee Elaine Chao, in her confirmation hearing Wednesday before a Senate committee, reportedly declined to commit herself to the broad-ranging and controversial workplace safety or ergonomics standards issued by the outgoing Clinton administration.

The wave of mergers sweeping through trucking came to the industry’s leasing sector Jan. 15, when No. 2 Penske Truck Leasing announced it will buy No. 3 Rollins Truck Leasing in a $2 billion deal that threatens Ryder System’s position as the nation’s largest full-service leasing company.

The national average price of diesel fuel fell by 1.1 cents a gallon last week to stand at $1.509 a gallon on Jan. 15, the lowest point since late August and the sixth price drop in the past seven weeks reported by the Energy Information Administration.

Crossing the Hudson River into New York City will take as much as a 75% bigger bite from truckers’ wallets if the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s proposed toll increase goes through.

Air has always been an important factor in maintaining a heavy-duty, over-the-road truck.

If Charles Dickens were writing about U.S. Class 8 truck sales in 2000, he might have said: “It was almost the best of years; it was the worst of years.”