���ϳԹ���

Legal worries over patents are blocking adoption of an official standard for trailer-to-tractor warning communications. The patent issue frustrates backers of the electronic protocol called PLC4Trucks because they face a looming federal deadline to establish an accepted way to warn the driver of a faulty antilock braking system in a trailer.

Consolidated Freightways says it has a better idea for people who plan to move but don’t feel like paying to hire a moving company. CF will send a trailer to your house, let you load it yourself and then come and get it. The service, which went “live” June 21, is being offered through the Menlo Park, Calif., company’s new e-commerce division.

Air shipping rights obtained in a purchase of Challenge Air Cargo could give United Parcel Service dominant market share of both heavy air cargo and express package service in Latin America. The deal, announced June 28, calls for UPS to take over Challenge’s facilities, including warehouses and ground equipment, and its customer network.

The Clinton administration, thwarted by a court decision, has taken the first step to reviving its controversial smog and soot clear air rules. The Justice Department on June 28 petitioned a full appeals court to reconsider a May 14 decision that overturned tougher air standards issued by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1997.

Police believe engine trouble may have caused a small car to stall on Georgia 400 Sunday afternoon, causing a crash with a tractor-trailer that left all of the car's six passengers dead. No charges are likely to be filed against the truck driver, 61-year-old Robert Louis Moore of Decatur. Moore works for Davenport Trucking, a contractor that carries mail for the U.S. Postal Service.

Newspaper managers and substitute truck drivers are delivering the Dayton Daily News after a walkout by the regular drivers. About 30 drivers, represented by Teamsters Local 957, walked off the job Saturday night. Publisher Brad Tillson said Monday the drivers offered to return to work Sunday, but newspaper officials did not feel comfortable turning the fleet of trucks over to them.

The president of the Oregon Senate declared there will be a single, decisive vote on a 5-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax increase that includes a move by trucking to replace the state’s weight-mile tax with a tax on diesel fuel. “We will have one vote, and that is all,” state Sen. Brady Adams said June 21. “Either there is support or there isn’t.”

Deaton Inc., a flatbed and dry van truckload carrier based in Birmingham, Ala., has boosted mileage pay for drivers by an average of 12%, with pay rates for the most experienced drivers rising more than 21%. President Jerry Crews said the company is hopeful that the extra pay will attract better quality drivers and improve service to customers.

On June 17, a load of steel moved from Maryland to Pennsylvania and ushered in a new Web site — eflatbed.com — for truckers serving the metals industry. Launched by Pittsburgh Logistics Systems, the site allows flatbed carriers to view available freight lanes across the United States and parts of Canada.