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Trailer shipments in the first nine months of 1999 were down from last year, but still strong enough to be on track to make this year the second biggest in the industry’s history.

The U.S. Capitol’s first intermodal Christmas tree landed in Washington Nov. 29, after wending its way more than 3,000 miles, via two truck trips, a tour across the state of Wisconsin, and a journey over the rails.

Trucking will get one of its long-awaited wishes fulfilled Jan. 1, when the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration becomes a separate agency within the Department of Transportation.

The 13-year-old commercial driver license program is about to get a fine-tuning. Motor carrier safety legislation awaiting President Clinton’s signature will make it harder for truck or bus operators with bad driving records — either on-duty or off-duty — to keep their CDL.

The Clinton administration got to the finish line first in the race to see if it could issue an ergonomics proposal before congressional Republicans passed a bill blocking it.

The house of cards came tumbling down for Hogan Transports soon after the Department of Labor dealt the truckload carrier the ace it wanted: approval to hire foreign drivers on work visas. But Labor quickly turned around and said no dice.

Top transportation officers of the military, in a groundbreaking meeting with American Trucking Associations, agreed to work with the industry on legislative and regulatory issues and to try to resolve long-festering problems.

Safety technologies will be tested on the road in the next three years, with the federal government kicking in $12.7 million to go along with $7.7 million in private money to fund four truck safety pilot projects.

Shippers attending the 92nd annual meeting of the National Industrial Transportation League got a sobering message about how they do business from truckers, drivers and peers: If they don’t shape up, their freight won’t get shipped out.