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In the news this morning: Emery Worldwide sues US Postal Service over mail processing centers; Volkswagen chiefs set to take places on Scania board; and Maine lawmakers vote to rebate state fuel tax to truckers.

The national diesel price average recorded its biggest drop of the year last week, after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to boost oil production by some 1.7 million barrels a day.

The Idaho Senate addressed the state’s weight-distance tax problems by unanimously voting to scrap the beleaguered system and replace it with higher truck registration fees, much as other former ton-mile tax states have done.

Canadian truckers, like their U.S. counterparts, are continuing to feel the squeeze of higher fuel prices.

Vendors are flooding the market with Internet-based exchanges for managing and moving freight. As the exchanges proliferate, the vendors jockey for position in hopes of attracting enough business to keep carriers’ trailers full while cutting costs for shippers.

State and federal inspectors have started cracking down on Mexican truckers operating under illegal leasing agreements with U.S. carriers to go beyond the 28 commercial zones along the U.S-Mexico border.

Volkswagen AG agreed to buy more than 30 million shares of Scania to become the largest owner of the Swedish truck and bus maker.

Coming off a record sales year, truck dealers are “looking forward” to a slackening of the sales pace in 2000, according to James H. Westlake, director of the American Truck Dealers division of the National Automobile Dealers Assocation. ATD will hold its 37th annual convention and exposition April 8 to 11 in San Antonio.

Trucks pulling 53-foot trailers would have nearly unfettered access to most of Vermont’s major roads under legislation approved by the state House of Representatives. The only restriction would be overall vehicle length.