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American Trucking Associations has a Y2K problem that has nothing to do with configuring its computers to deal with the new millennium. The bug facing the organization is persuading its 14 conferences and national affiliates to develop closer ties with their bigger cousin by Dec. 31, 2000.

Four executives from major trucking companies and Teamsters’ President James P. Hoffa joined with politicians and senior Department of Transportation officials May 20 in a conspicuous show of support for efforts to educate the public about sharing the road with trucks.

Officials of the nation’s largest railroad said they don’t believe Congress will pass legislation to force carriers to permit their competitors to operate over their tracks.w

Union Pacific wants to show the world that it is recovering strongly from an epidemic of service problems related to the railroad’s absorption of Southern Pacific. Transport Topics Editor Howard S. Abramson interviewed Richard K. Davidson, chief executive officer of Union Pacific Corp., during an inspection trip earlier in May of a new intermodal freight route the nation’s biggest railroad has crafted between Kansas City, Mo., and Los Angeles-Long Beach in California.

A plan to perform smoke tests on trucks registered in the Chicago area passed the state legislature despite industry opposition.

Oregon legislators rejected a plan to replace the state’s weight-distance tax with a levy on diesel fuel.

Transit Group picked up more support for its truckload consolidation strategy from GE Equity, a private investment arm of General Electric Co.

The national average retail price of diesel fell slightly, dropping to $1.075 a gallon May 17 from $1.083 a week earlier, and maintained the stability seen in recent weeks.

The trucking industry is anxiously awaiting the outcome of the talks between the nation’s automobile haulers and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. While the results of those talks are important on their own, the negotiations have taken on even more significance because they represent the first major test of the union’s new leader, James P. Hoffa.

Trucking needs to remove itself from the list of industries that can be safely bashed. Any attempt to accomplish public policy goals — whether at the federal or state level — is bound to be much more difficult so long as politicians and bureaucrats believe that trucks are viewed negatively by the public.