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Mobile communications supplier Qualcomm Inc. said Swift Transportation, the nation’s third-largest truckload carrier, has agreed to equip all of its 35,000 trailers with Qualcomm’s untethered trailer tracking system.

The number of heavy-duty vehicles in use in the United States increased 1.9% in the fourth quarter of 2004, a slower rate than the third quarter’s gain.

Some law enforcement officials in Florida have launch-ed an offensive against cargo theft and hope that federal authorities and those in other states would join them.

The Bush administration has recently identified transportation as one of 12 high-growth industry sectors and the focus of the Department of Labor’s High Growth Job Training Initiative.

A shrinking labor supply coupled with high demand for truckload service has forced carriers to adopt new operating strategies and rethink the way they recruit, retain and reward drivers, said industry executives interviewed by Transport Topics.

The DHL Americas unit of Deutsche Post World Net won’t make a profit until the fourth quarter of 2006, partly because the company is unable to charge as much as its main competitors because of service issues, the parent company’s chief financial officer said.

After a long truck trip with his ear tuned to radio programming beamed down from space, Herb Schmidt, president of truckload carrier Contract Freighters Inc., was so impressed that he ordered all his fleet’s new trucks to be equipped with factory-installed satellite radio receivers.

WASHINGTON — Nearly 400 trucking company executives and industry officials discussed issues ranging from highway finance and tax incentives for the purchase of cleaner-burning trucks to driver hours-of-service rules at American Trucking Associations’ Winter Leadership Meeting.

Although motor carriers are forced to buy heavy-duty trucks with more expensive and less fuel-efficient — but cleaner-burning — diesel engines, local and state government officials are increasingly targeting trucking operations as part of an effort to meet federal air quality standards.

Roberson Transportation Cos. last week exited the trucking industry, agreeing to sell its dry van truckload business to Indianapolis-based Celadon Group for $22.7 million and its flatbed business and logistics division to Annett Holdings of Des Moines, Iowa, for an undisclosed amount.