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This year, Mack Trucks Inc. and fans of perhaps the most legendary name in the truck-making business are celebrating the company’s centennial anniversary.

The price of diesel fuel in New England dropped by more than 19 cents a gallon for the second week in a row, helping to hold the national average price steady at $1.456 a gallon despite increases in the Midwest and West.

American Trucking Associations President Walter B. McCormick Jr. asked for immediate help for a trucking industry battered by soaring diesel fuel prices, in testimony before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Feb. 24.

The two-tier fee structure that favors certain trucking operations in Idaho’s weight-distance tax is unconstitutional, a state court ruled last week.

The debate over placing so-called black boxes on trucks is ready to heat up, but the dialogue isn’t likely to go anywhere until someone spells out what the devices should do.

A trickle of details has begun to appear on how the Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration plans to cut the number of truck-related fatalities in half within the decade.

The Department of Transportation’s proposed $55 billion spending bill for 2001 is running into opposition on Capitol Hill because of proposals to increase user fees and to use fuel tax money for non-highway purposes.

Contrary to published reports, some workers in the railroad industry will not be exempt from a proposed rule that would require trucking and nearly every other industry to revamp workplaces to reduce repetitive stress injuries, a spokeswoman for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration said last week.

The leader of the nation’s largest shippers group got a blunt answer from a representative of the railroad industry Feb. 23 in response to his call for allowing trucks to carry heavier loads in exchange for moving the freight partly over the railroads.