���ϳԹ���

Germany’s state-owned postal service announced it will pay $580 million for Royal Nedlloyd’s European land transport and distribution businesses.

The accident at Bourbonnais, Ill., that killed at least 11 people and injured scores of others last week has refocused the attention of both the trucking and railroad industries on one of their most difficult common safety problems: grade crossings.

An Arkansas highway funding plan that raises state taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel could ward off proposals to place tolls on 333 miles of Interstate highways or collect a weight-distance tax from truckers.

PARIS — After seven diesel fuel tax increases in six years, Britain’s small trucking companies and owner-operators “are just giving up,” said Peter Knight, owner of Les Knight Transport.

A minority of reckless truck drivers is giving the rest of the industry a bad name, say some state trucking associations. To fight back, the groups are lending support to legislation to crack down on unsafe truckers.

The Department of Transportation’s inspector general was back on Capitol Hill last week, urging Congress to completely remodel the federal government’s trucking safety program.

Arkansas Best Corp., the parent of ABF Freight System, will sell Clipper International, the international freight forwarding division of its Clipper Group. The company also announced plans to buy the publicly-held shares of Treadco Inc., the new and retread truck tire business of which it owns 49%.

The unanimous vote by the Truckload Carriers Association last week to focus on education and training, and let the American Trucking Associations handle its advocacy efforts is a major step in the drive to improve the effectiveness of both organizations.

While state elections usually focus on issues like education, crime prevention and economic development, the recent race for governor in Illinois provided an unusual battlefield for some of the arcane issues of motor transportation law that rarely become the subject of public debate.

Delays and mistreatment of drivers at loading docks are forcing several trucking executives to consider discontinuing service to some shippers and locations.