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The National Transportation Safety Board last week called for a prohibition on the use of certain legal drugs and medications by commercial vehicle operators while they are working. It was one of several recommendations arising from an NTSB probe into a bus-truck accident in Pennsylvania a year and a half ago.

Trucking companies in Illinois can expect beefed-up enforcement of a state law that distinguishes, for unemployment insurance purposes, employees from independent contractors.

Teamsters President James P. Hoffa took on Overnite Transportation in a question-and-answer session with the media Jan. 6.

Frozen Food Express Industries is restructuring its operations, eliminating about 150 non-driver employee positions and reducing the size of its trailer fleet by more than 20%.

In this issue we celebrate trucking’s first century with a look back at the industry’s early days, including front pages of issues of Transport Topics that carried momentous news. And we review the highlights, and some “lowlights,” of events that affected trucking during 1999.

In September 1998, the Nebraska State Patrol Carrier Enforcement Division staged surprise truck inspections in Norfolk, Neb. Some truckers were indeed surprised. There were a total of 527 violations that cost $7,760 in fines. The local media picked up the story and ran with it, to the dismay of Nebraska trucking members. Surprise inspections in Grand Island and Hastings in 1998 and 1999 yielded similar numbers of violations and a higher fine total.

The year’s hot debate over which government agency should regulate trucking safety – be it the Federal Highway Administration or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration – was resolved in a way that left the question moot and the motor carrier industry delighted.

The track left by diesel prices in 1999 offered a wild ride, from the lowest level of a decade to the highest point seen in years, with several ups and downs along the way.

Congress made little headway on trucking-related issues in 1999 aside from creating the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.