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Second-quarter earnings reports show that the nation’s truckload carriers limped through the spring, as rising revenue failed to offset expenses that accelerated even more rapidly.

CNF Inc. and several other high-flying freight transportation companies want an Internal Revenue Service tax ruling grounded.

Spokesmen for the two railroads that gobbled up Conrail last year — and almost choked on it — are convinced that the companies now have the situation under control as the peak freight transportation season approaches.

Big trucks gained the ability to roam more freely in Vermont as of Aug. 1.

A Pennsylvania legislative panel blamed an increase in fatal crashes involving trucks in part on dwindling inspection numbers and not enough spending on truck safety.

The national average retail price of diesel fuel dropped for the fourth consecutive week. But the stage appears to be set for the price to bounce back up in the next few weeks and a partial cause could be problems experienced by coal-fired electrical plants.

For most of the American trucking industry, business boomed during the second quarter of 2000, according to the financial reports of the large, publicly held companies. Unfortunately for much of the truckload sector, this jump in business led to a fall in net income.

To borrow a phrase from “The Music Man,” “We got trouble in River City” and across this country. The trouble I’m referring to is coming to a head in the trucking industry.

Getting sick is unpleasant in the best of circumstances. But for a trucker far from home hauling a load that must be in the receiver’s hands by tomorrow morning, the experience can be especially grueling.