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President-elect George Bush’s appointment of Norman Y. Mineta as his transportation secretary virtually insures that the Department of Transportation will be off and running quickly after the inauguration.

American men live an average of 76 years. Male truck drivers in America live an average of 61 years, according to Dr. Martin Moore-Ede, a Toronto researcher. If you do the math, you find that truck drivers lose out on 15 years of life. So for males, if you are an over-the-road driver, statistically you will not live nearly as long as your counterparts in other industries.

At a recent public hearing in South Gate, Calif., angry residents demanded a ban on diesel-powered trucks because they believed diesel exhaust to be a health hazard.

Small fleets and independent owner-operators, expected to bear the brunt of the coming shakeout in trucking, are getting a helping hand from an unlikely source.

AB Volvo transferred some 41 million shares of its stock to Renault SA Jan. 2 as payment for 100% of the shares in the French company’s truck business.

Volvo Trucks North America no longer wants to talk about its much-advertised “Cost Per Mile” program since it was sued by Great Southern Truck Co., which claimed VTNA’s failure to honor the program’s financial commitments contributed to the Volvo dealer’s bankruptcy.

Ralph B. Ryder, a founding member of Ryder System, died of heart failure on Dec. 28 at a hospital in Coral Gables, Fla. He was 90.

With constituents shivering in the deep freeze that has gripped much of the nation, several Midwestern governors suspended hours-of-service regulations for fuel truck drivers.

FedEx and the U.S. Postal Service are close to a contract that could bring the Memphis-based company at least $5 billion in revenue over the next several years, making it the most lucrative postal contract ever, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Swedish truckmaker AB Volvo does not plan to sell its 5% stake in Japanese automaker Mitsubishi and will proceed with taking a 19.9% share in the company, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday on its Web site.