���ϳԹ���

The Canadian reaction to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s release of its hours-of-service proposal was subdued in most quarters, more than a week after the unveiling caused a commotion throughout this country.

Funding for a center to develop workers for the transportation industry, and boost the economy of the Mississippi Delta region, got a jump-start when Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee announced a $500,000 building grant April 28.

Two groups bidding to acquire KLLM Transport Services, the nations’ fifth-largest refrigerated carrier, last week agreed to submit binding offers to a special committee of the board of directors on May 5.

Good morning trucking industry. It’s time to put our collective mouths in gear and officially let the Department of Transportation know what we think about its proposed revisions to the hours-of-service rules.

If pop music icon Warren Zevon were in the trucking business, he’d amend the lyrics to one of his more popular songs to read, “Send lawyers, guns and money — hours of service has hit the fan.”

Electronic communication from trailers in the field has advanced to the point where skepticism of tracking technology is starting to show signs of cracking, according to some fleet executives who are poised to buy the equipment.

Cheating the wind to save fuel — more properly known as the science of aerodynamics — seems to have caught on with the cabs of today’s highway tractors. Streamlined power units, looking as if they’ve just emerged from aircraft wind tunnels, ease their way down the road and through the air, while behind them, vans and refrigerated trailers appear to have been riveted together in a box factory.

New trailer shipments in February totaled 23,212, a somewhat perkier 132 units more than the same month in 1999. The two-month total of 45,314 for 2000, however, was 1.8% below the 46,123 posted in 1999.

Anyone who wants to know how Canada’s recent fuel crisis affected owner-operators should answer the following question: What do you get when you mix high fuel prices, more than 50 disgruntled truckers, a wife and a doughnut shop?