���ϳԹ���

Five giants of the household goods moving industry hope a new joint Internet site that will give consumers the power to get automatic estimates and reserve trucks will be the answer to industry fears about online competitors.

The price of diesel fuel jumped 2.4 cents to the fourth consecutive record high while the price of oil seesawed against a backdrop of rising pressure on the White House to pump oil from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve into the volatile market.

As the worldwide crisis in oil prices continued last week, Europe was again plagued by protest blockades of fuel supplies and ports, the region’s leaders squabbled with each other over price-relief measures and France called for talks between oil-consuming nations and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to ease prices.

Trucking industry officials have been vocal in calling for a release of oil from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve in hopes of driving pump prices down with an additional supply of diesel fuel.

The proliferation of online exchanges over the past two years among trucking-related companies — from freight haulers to parts dealers — have many casting a watchful eye toward the federal government to see how it may react to such business practices.

Working hard and being smart is good, but not always enough. A company needs to have the luck of being in the right place at the right time.

Many of the nation’s largest shippers will oppose any government effort to mandate a fuel surcharge, according to the top lawyer of one of the most important shipper organizations in the country.

The rise of online logistics services, driven by business-to-consumer electronic commerce, is headed for an inevitable plateau and probable shake-out, according to the chief information officer of Roadway Express.

Living up to its title, Ontario Trucking Association’s “Truck World 2000” displayed the big picture of trucking, made room for aspects on the fringes that have nothing to do with moving freight, and wrapped up with what may have been one of Canadian trucking’s social events of the year (having something to with a wedding cake and rice).