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TEA 21, the shorthand designation for the enormously successful highway legislation known as the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, recently celebrated its first birthday. And TEA 21 is something the trucking industry should certainly savor.

Much of the focus surrounding highway safety of late has been on the effectiveness of regulations designed to improve the performance of drivers and the roadworthiness of vehicles. Lost in the debate has been the role of the highway in preventing or, in too many cases, contributing to crashes.

For America’s individual motorists, truckers and businesses, the first anniversary of TEA 21’s enactment is worth noting because of one extraordinary fact: The law includes a first-ever guarantee that fuel taxes paid at the gas pump will be directed to their intended purpose — making our highways safer and less congested.

While sales of new Class 8 trucks broke all records in 1998, shorter replacement cycles are putting more of those late-model trucks on the used market. For owner-operators and many fleet managers, what this means is the potential to get a lot more truck than might be possible in the new truck market — and at a bargain price. Put simply, it's turning into a buyer’s market.

Does the Department of Transportation’s inspector general have the authority to go after trucking companies suspected of serious violations of federal motor carrier safety regulations? Inspector General Kenneth M. Mead and DOT say yes. Attorney Anthony J. McMahon, representing a half-dozen companies he says were “raided” by agents from the Office of Inspector General, says absolutely not.

It’s time to have a rational debate over trucking productivity, said the head of a group advocating increasing the maximum truck weight to 97,000 pounds. “I ask you to keep an open mind as we talk about removing obstacles to productivity, ” Peter Vroom, director of Americans for Safe and Efficient Transportation, said at a Transportation Table lunch at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C

The Western Governors Association weighed in on the issue of bigger, heavier trucks last week but shied away from seeking federal approval for wider use of longer combination vehicles. The governors voted June 15 to ask the Department of Transportation to study the operation of LCVs and other high-payload trucks in the West.

This city features a scaled-down Manhattan skyline, a pyramid not quite as large as some of those built by the pharaohs, and other replicas of familiar sights from somewhere else. So perhaps it’s not surprising that Las Vegas was host to something that looked a lot like a major trucking show — only smaller.

A “town meeting” on hours-of-service regulations that featured a top federal regulator had nothing to do with new truck equipment but it was one of the highlights of the International Trucking Show.

Meritor Automotive will fold its transmission business into a joint operation with ZF Friedrichshafen AG, marking the second venture this year for the German manufacturer aimed at segments of the medium- and heavy-duty truck markets in North America.