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When George W. Bush becomes president Jan. 20, he will have someone with the highest levels of transportation policy experience at his right hand.

David S. Addington, senior vice president and general counsel of American Trucking Associations, is leaving the trucking federation for a job in the new Bush administration.

Although the new millennium arrived without a hitch, it was an unsettling year for freight haulers as many of the trends that plagued trucking in 1999 — from rising fuel costs to a persistent shortage of drivers — continued to dog carriers in 2000.

American Trucking Associations said the Department of Transportation, in designing its hours-of-service proposal, ignored most of the 62 executive orders and legislative mandates in place to guide the development of sound rulemakings and underestimated the costs to the industry.

The Motor Freight Carriers Association said it would be better for the less-than-truckload sector to continue working under the current 63-year-old rules governing drivers than adopt the revisions to the hours of service proposed by the Department of Transportation.

A new set of standards on cargo tiedown and securement could be in force as early as July 1, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

Motor carriers that are delinquent in paying fines levied by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will be taken off the road, under a rule that goes into effect April 16.

Citing a “downward trend in the economy” that has “accelerated sharply in the past few weeks,” the chief executive officer of the Union Pacific Railroad said the company will trim some 2,000 jobs from its 50,000-employee workforce in early 2001.

European Union transport ministers have agreed to a plan that will reduce the number of hours truckers may work.