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Alas, the first faint glimmer of light may have been spotted at the end of the tunnel that could carry fuel from the nation’s 571 million barrels of reserve oil into our trucks’ fuel tanks.

Fleet managers and owner-operators know “winterizing” isn’t what it used to be. Where it once meant installing special fluids and equipment, that’s pretty much passé if they’ve spec’d the vehicle properly and maintained it year-round.

Many truckers can recall, as youngsters, the advice of their mothers to button up before heading outside into the cold weather. Such precautions are still warranted even though the youngsters are now adults, according to a fleet manager at Sather Trucking.

Brian Baumeister from the Buffalo, N.Y., suburb of Bowmansville may have flown into New York City, but he had the option to drive home in a brand new GMC Jimmy sport utility vehicle.

American Trucking Associations beefed up its staff in key policy areas by hiring a veteran safety specialist and an environmental attorney.

The automobile industry will be allowed to launch an online business-to-business exchange, but federal regulators said they will be watching closely to see if the exchange runs afoul of antitrust rules.

The Defense Department will soon award a contract to see if it can save taxpayer dollars by using third-party logistics firms to orchestrate the movement of its massive quantities of materiel.

The gap between Class 8 truck sales in 1999 and 2000 widened in August as total sales of 16,986 trailed the 1999 figure of 21,938 by 22.6% — the biggest month-to-month drop so far this year.

The executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association says American Trucking Associations is hurting his group’s efforts to get a national fuel surcharge law by remaining neutral on the plan.