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For years, trucking clamored for new hours-of-service regulations to give its drivers greater operational flexibility, and behold, the government heard the call and answered. But the industry is not being offered what it asked for, as is clear by the groundswell that has arisen in trucking ranks against the U.S. Department of Transportation’s 270-page proposal.

American’s lust for new gadgets is driving drivers to distraction and, as a result, causing crashes, said experts at a recent meeting evaluating the impact of in-vehicle technology on safety.

The wide-ranging, free-form Internet with its limitless information vista is a business marvel — and an insurance liability, according to a transportation consultant.

The Laredo of yesteryear – the image is of a dusty, hot Texas border city with streets forever clogged by queues of trucks crossing the Rio Grande — is gone.

Sales of Class 8 trucks in the United States continued to slump in June 2000, with the biggest sales drop —23.1% — posted by the biggest of the original equipment manufacturers, Freightliner in Portland, Ore.

Trucking companies carrying loads into Canada will be required to use unique carrier identification numbers in 2001, according to the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration does not know how it will achieve Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater’s aim of cutting the number of truck-related deaths in half by 2009, the General Accounting Office says in a new report.

Refrigerated carrier executive William Grojean says carriers in his sector are heading for a day of reckoning because of difficulties in getting rate increases and paying drivers enough.

Government officials are putting truckloads of faith in technology to help reach the goal of 50% fewer truck-related fatalities by 2010, and manufacturers have responded by rolling out their first test vehicles under the Intelligent Vehicles Initiative.