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Although the new millennium arrived without a hitch, it was an unsettling year for freight haulers as many of the trends that plagued trucking in 1999 — from rising fuel costs to a persistent shortage of drivers — continued to dog carriers in 2000.

The Motor Freight Carriers Association said it would be better for the less-than-truckload sector to continue working under the current 63-year-old rules governing drivers than adopt the revisions to the hours of service proposed by the Department of Transportation.

A new set of standards on cargo tiedown and securement could be in force as early as July 1, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

Motor carriers that are delinquent in paying fines levied by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will be taken off the road, under a rule that goes into effect April 16.

Citing a “downward trend in the economy” that has “accelerated sharply in the past few weeks,” the chief executive officer of the Union Pacific Railroad said the company will trim some 2,000 jobs from its 50,000-employee workforce in early 2001.

European Union transport ministers have agreed to a plan that will reduce the number of hours truckers may work.

A barrage of ice and snow storms Christmas week brought truck, train and air shipments in the Midwest to a halt, cut power to 500,000 residents and businesses in several states and left a layer of glaring ice on pavements from New Mexico to Arkansas.

The Arkansas Trucking Association is preparing a bill that would be introduced in the General Assembly to revamp the way members of the Arkansas State Highway Commission are selected for office.

This was the year you’ll tell your grandchildren about. The presidential election of 2000 is one for the history books, and for all the sturm and drang about premature media calls on the outcome, hanging chads and legal contests at every level, the experience told volumes about the strength of the American system of government and our faith in it.