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img src="/sites/default/files/images/articles/printeditiontag_new.gif" width=120 align=right>NEW YORK - Top officials from three large truckload carriers outlined plans to embrace new federally mandated heavy-duty truck engines in 2003, even as they said their engine tests raised some performance issues.

Chief executive officers of P.A.M. Transportation Services, Covenant Transport and U.S. Xpress Enterprises each said they planned to begin buying trucks with new model engines beginning as early as the first quarter of 2003.

However, they offered mixed views on whether those engines would prove reliable over time, one citing lower fuel economy and another complaining of consistent valve problems with the new exhaust gas recirculation technology.

They made their remarks to other industry executives and trucking analysts at an investors' forum on transportation companies held by investment brokerage BB&T Capital Markets.

"We've all looked at what we're going to do about the new engine," Covenant CEO David R. Parker told the group. "The engine will get to where it's got to get to [mechanically] - we just don't know when."

One industry analyst said it could be months before the trucking industry forms an educated opinion of engine reliability and performance, and commits to buying the equipment.

"We'll have a clear read by February or March, if companies are comfortable enough to place material orders of engines or if they are going to wait for the second year of the engine," BB&T's Thom Albrecht, the forum's moderator, said in an interview.

For the full story, see the Nov. 11 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.