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The Surface Transportation Board has put a 15-month hold on new railroad mergers while it tries to fashion rules to prevent the problems that have attended the last two major consolidations.

This afternoon's headlines: Union Pacific abandons plans for Illinois railport; Senator Campbell gets an earful on fuel prices during truck-driving vacation; and Banc of America raises Werner Enterprises' stock rating.

Truckers for Heartland Express will soon be enjoying about a 2-cent-a-mile increase in pay when the Coralville, Iowa-based truckload carrier institutes pay raises March 18.

United Parcel Service’s tender offer to buy back as many as 100.9 million shares of restricted stock fell well short of that number, netting only 69.3 million shares.

This afternoon's headlines: Peterbilt cuts production because of gas prices; Government takes delivery of bulletproof rigs to haul nuclear weapons; and Illinois town board votes to oppose planned Union Pacific railport.

Trucking companies that hire Pennsylvanians are having to resort to unusual means to conduct pre-employment screening since the state revoked access to the state’s driver records for background-check provider DAC Services.

Fewer than 150 truckers pulled into Washington, D.C., March 16, to protest a number of ills plaguing owner-operators. And when they arrived, they found two groups engaged in a cat fight to represent them.

Ten-year highs for crude oil propelled diesel fuel prices to the highest on record, surpassing levels established in 1990 during Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.

Ken Johnson, whose term as chairman of The Maintenance Council ended last week, vowed to “preserve the mission” of TMC in the face of concerns that integration with American Trucking Associations could have a negative effect on the close-knit council.

United Parcel Service, the nation’s largest trucking company and the largest railroad freight customer, urged the Surface Transportation Board to impose a two-year moratorium on further rail mergers.