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A financial consultant for trucking companies said the recently passed congressional bill that repeals estate and gift taxes has advantages for the industry and is not a tax that benefits only the wealthy as the White House has charged.

Freightliner Corp. intends to extend its manufacturing empire in Canada and pick up more shares of the Class 8 rig sales with the proposed acquisition of Western Star Trucks for more than $400 million.

Refrigerated carriers laid out the battle plans for getting truckers in and out of the loading docks without the interminable delays that rankle drivers and sap carrier productivity and revenue.

William Grojean says refrigerated carriers are heading for a day of reckoning because of difficulties in getting rate increases and paying drivers enough.

John Major, the former prime minister of the United Kingdom who now has ties to trucking, headlines the list of star speakers scheduled for American Trucking Associations’ Management Conference & Exhibition this fall in San Diego.

Transportation labor flexed its political muscles July 20 at the start of the third national convention of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Department, getting support for issues important to their membership from several Congressional leaders.

Government officials are putting truckloads of faith in technology to help reach the goal of 50% fewer truck-related fatalities by 2010, and manufacturers have responded by rolling out their first test vehicles under the Intelligent Vehicles Initiative.

California air regulators announced plans to require the owners of 1.25 million diesel engines to install filters to catch fine pollution particles.

An appeals court decision July 14 upholding the Surface Transportation Board’s 15-month moratorium on new rail merger filings — which forestalled an expected “end game” of ultimate rail mergers — met a mixed reaction from railroads and their customers.