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Wall Street is sending a signal to non-asset-based transportation companies: Give us more.

Four months after the collapse of AmeriTruck Distribution Corp., Ronald Damico is still picking up the pieces.

Eliminating sexual harassment in the workplace is a joint goal of the Motor Freight Carriers Association and the Teamsters as they develop an industrywide training program, aided by a $100,000 grant from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. appealed a Surface Transportation Board moratorium on railroad mergers that would delay for more than a year consideration of the carrier’s proposed consolidation with Canadian National Railway.

Silver Eagle Co., a unionized less-than-truckload carrier, closed its doors March 16, ending 70 years of service in the Pacific Northwest.

Week by week, some of the lifeblood of the trucking industry is being drained away to the coffers of the oil-exporting nations that, through sheer happenstance, sit on deep pools of crude.

In 1998, 22,000 workers in the trucking industry were sidelined for days or weeks or even months by work-related injuries to muscles, tendons and ligaments. They simply hurt too much to do their jobs. Another 44,000 experienced less serious injuries and were able to stay on the job while recovering.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has formally issued its proposed ergonomics standard, supposedly aimed at reducing musculoskeletal disorders. In doing so, OSHA has signaled its total disregard for basing public policy on sound science. OSHA also claims that the rule will cost American businesses a mere $4 billion a year, when well-respected economists have concluded that annual costs could actually exceed $100 billion. Additionally, many question whether these news costs would actually prevent injuries.

In most states, state police conduct roadside inspections of trucks. In others, trucking safety is the responsibility of the state Department of Transportation or Public Service Commission. There are even some states where truckers must obey four separate agencies of safety enforcers.

Ever wonder how the out-of-service criteria used by roadside inspectors were developed? Believe it or not, they came about in an effort to make the lives of both truckers and inspectors easier, according to the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance.