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A Clinton administration proposal to charge maritime vessel operators a fee to cover the cost of harbor and navigational channel dredging is under fire from ports and maritime interests, but a powerful lawmaker warned that some sort of fee is likely.

Driver pay increased at an annual rate of 3.3% in the first quarter of 1999, a bit higher than the 3.1% annual rate seen in the fourth quarter of 1998, according to the National Survey of Driver Wages.

In an experiment that has an element of risk to it, Yellow Corp. is providing transportation services for eChemicals, a company that uses the Internet to match buyers and sellers of industrial chemicals.

Schneider National may have validated the technology that makes it possible to locate and track trailers unhooked from power units in announcing at the end of April the deal to retrofit much of its fleet of 43,000 trailers with a product developed by Vantage Tracking Solutions.

A year ago, a half-dozen companies were contending in the race to develop commercially viable untethered trailer-tracking systems. Today, one company -- Orbcomm Global -- has clearly emerged as the one to beat.

A National Research Council study suggests people are eager to use technology to make business processes more efficient, but that it may take some digging to determine which are the best tools.

The Teamsters union negotiating team, led by general president James P. Hoffa in his first appearance at the bargaining table, came to terms with the unionized autohaulers last week, avoiding a job walkout that would have disrupted new car deliveries across the country.

The price of diesel fuel continued its downward trend, hitting a nine-week low of $1.065 a gallon May 31, one-tenth of a cent off the previous week’s national average. Gasoline prices, which had been expected to rise, also dropped by 1.5 cents to $1.151.

A conference for Wall Street analysts on railroad finance last week turned into a debate on whether railroads should be forced to provide competitive access to their tracks and other infrastructure.