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J.B. Hunt Transport Services will spend more than $1 billion over five years to convert its fleet of 9,000 cabover truck tractors to conventional tractors, company officials said Aug. 26.

Some 120 miles to the south of Vancouver, British Columbia, hundreds of Seattle container haulers, encouraged by the success of their Canadian counterparts, have parked their trucks in protest against low wages and the lack of union representation.

The leader of the nation’s largest shippers’ group is calling for a trade-off between the railroad and trucking industries. In exchange for railroad support of heavier big rigs, trucking companies would move more freight on intermodal lines.

Officers of bankrupt NationsWay Transport Service have agreed to sell three of the carrier’s hubs — in Commerce City, Colo.; Harrisburg, Pa.; and Phoenix — to two of the country’s less-than-truckload giants. The facilities are scheduled to be sold on Sept. 7 at federal bankruptcy court in Phoenix.

Shell Oil Co. apologized to truckers for its newest advertising campaign after the industry complained that the ads cast trucking in a negative light.

The battle lines are being drawn for what seems likely to be heated debate this week on improving trucking safety with technology.

East Coast farmers and the truckers they rely on to transport their goods have been hit hard by this season’s blistering heat and record-setting dry spell. After months of endless sunny days, however, desperately needed rains are starting to revitalize parched hopes.

Although global positioning systems in close to 100,000 cars in Japan reportedly shut down as programmers reset the clocks on older GPS satellites, major suppliers of tracking systems for trucks in the U.S. reported no problems.

Oil suppliers say they are ready for the Year 2000, so consumers who fear a shortage associated with the Millennium Bug need not worry nor hoard oil in the days leading up to the turn of the century.