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Officials of the nation’s largest railroad said they don’t believe Congress will pass legislation to force carriers to permit their competitors to operate over their tracks.w

A plan to perform smoke tests on trucks registered in the Chicago area passed the state legislature despite industry opposition.

Oregon legislators rejected a plan to replace the state’s weight-distance tax with a levy on diesel fuel.

Transit Group picked up more support for its truckload consolidation strategy from GE Equity, a private investment arm of General Electric Co.

The national average retail price of diesel fell slightly, dropping to $1.075 a gallon May 17 from $1.083 a week earlier, and maintained the stability seen in recent weeks.

The trucking industry is anxiously awaiting the outcome of the talks between the nation’s automobile haulers and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. While the results of those talks are important on their own, the negotiations have taken on even more significance because they represent the first major test of the union’s new leader, James P. Hoffa.

Trucking needs to remove itself from the list of industries that can be safely bashed. Any attempt to accomplish public policy goals — whether at the federal or state level — is bound to be much more difficult so long as politicians and bureaucrats believe that trucks are viewed negatively by the public.

Hauling freight for oil and gas exploration companies used to be the mainstay of Acme Truck Line. But years of cyclical booms and busts demonstrated that it needed other sources of revenue to continue growing.

Trucking was the eighth-largest contributor to members of the Senate Commerce Committee over the last six years, according to campaign finance reports.