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The Customs Service put its import-export automation eggs in a new basket called the Automated Commercial Environment. But funding and operational issues have delayed the delivery of ACE, and everyone involved in cross-border trade, including trucking, continues lurching along with the old system, hoping it won’t crash utterly and throw the customs-clearance process back into the Dark Ages of massive paper-filing.

Considering how Americans love their coffee it’s no wonder that Internet retailing companies are cropping up to satisfy the demand for a good cup of morning brew.

The Internet is sparking the development of new businesses and new ways of doing business throughout the shipping and trucking cycle, and brokers and freight-forwarders are no exception.

Revisions by the Bureau of the Census have wiped out an apparent record set for trailer shipments in 1998, while new reports showed January 2000 shipments trailing those in the same month a year earlier.

The recently announced purchase of part of Mitsubishi Motors Corp. by DaimlerChrysler AG further complicates the international family of truck makers, but it is not expected to affect the U.S. medium-duty truck market in the near future.

E-Paccar, a subsidiary of Paccar Corp., has joined the list of firms establishing a business-to-business exchange for buying and selling goods on the Internet.

Teamsters and Overnite Transportation officials made no progress after three more days of negotiations last week, but the union was involved in job actions all over the country.

Canadian truckers may get some relief this summer from spiking fuel costs in the form of a tax break.

The Good News: Diesel fuel prices are expected to fall to an average of $1.38 a gallon this summer and drop another four cents by year’s end should domestic refiners meet high production expectations, and imported oil shipments continue to flow.