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Bill Would Protect Trucking Cos. From Engine Fines • CF, Siemens Sign Two-Year Deal • Pa. to Inspect Trucks Beginning Sunday • U.S. Offers Additional Steel Tariff Exemptions • And more...

TUCSON, Ariz. — Motor carriers that hold onto tractors longer to avoid the post-October reduced-emission engines will not significantly increase maintenance routines or spending, maintenance experts predicted.

Early next year, the Bush administration and Congress will trade proposals for the next multiyear, multibillion-dollar highway spending bill. But transportation lobbyists and federal officials already are staking out classic positions on how to pump more money into the Highway Trust Fund and who should get how much out of the spigot.

American Trucking Associations has asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to modify consent decrees the court approved in 1999 which bound the diesel-engine industry to produce cleaner-burning truck engines by Oct. 1.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union said it submitted a proposal allowing West Coast port operators the use of productivity-enhancing technology in exchange for expanded union job coverage, including all new information technology jobs.

Even though a top Department of Transportation spokesman said a decision to open the United States southern border was imminent, a key provision on audits of Mexican fleets remains to be worked out between the U.S. and Mexican governments.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said Thursday its general economic index declined to 6.6 in July from a four-year high of 22.2 the month before. July marked the slowest expansion this year for manufacturing in this area.

The Conference Board said Thursday that its index of leading economic indicators held steady at 112.4 in June – the second time in three months the monthly index has failed to increase. The index had risen 0.6% in May, the group said.

Longshoremen and West Coast port operators continued to haggle over a new contract last week, and some said talks could continue until the union caucuses on July 22.

The economy’s growing recovery is beginning to tighten the market for truck drivers, according to industry statistics and recent interviews with fleet owners and managers.