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It has been a good year for Doug Lauer.

KISSIMMEE, Fla. – The Information Technology and Logistics Council, unable to decide among three less-than-ideal options about its future, chose to go back to the drawing board.

The game is on for in-cab computers sales, with everybody and his brother trying to design a device for carriers to install in trucks.

Global positioning systems will be 10 times more precise now that the Clinton administration has decided to unscramble satellite signals that had been reserved for military applications.

The Teamsters and Overnite Transportation exchanged blows through press releases that detailed violations of court orders in Minnesota related to the union's ongoing strike against the less-than-truckload carrier.

Computers have taken truck communications into the digital age, as every turn of the wheels and firing of the pistons can be recorded and transmitted to a carrier’s headquarters or a customer’s loading docks. The issue now is how best to capitalize on that data stream.

The relationship between the parts distribution systems of the original equipment manufacturers and the online parts exchanges that are starting to populate the World Wide Web is like that of an elephant to a mouse: The mouse is quick and can fit into small places, while the elephant is big and powerful but in some ways fears the mouse.

Global positioning systems will be 10 times more precise now that the Clinton administration has decided to unscramble satellite signals that had been reserved for military applications.

The game is on for in-cab computers sales, with everybody and his brother trying to design a device for carriers to install in trucks.

The relationship between original equipment manufacturers and the online parts exchanges is like that of an elephant to a mouse: The mouse is quick and can fit into small places, while the elephant is big and powerful but in some ways fears the mouse.