The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration expects to release by year’s end a proposed rule that would start the formal process to shorten the required stopping distances for heavy-duty trucks, an agency spokeswoman said.

A group of trucking industry representatives could be ready by early next year to ask Congress to provide financial incentives encouraging the use of engines that meet 2007 federal emission standards, industry officials said.

The California Air Resources Board may seek a waiver from federal Clean Air Act rules in order to allow a Southern California air-quality agency to require public fleets to buy cleaner-running engines, industry officials said.

Operating trucks at weights equal to or greater than existing federal limits resulted in improved fuel efficiency and lower emissions, the American Transportation Research Institute said a study it conducted with engine manufacturer Cummins Inc. concluded.

Canadian customs workers stopped picketing at the U.S.-Canadian border last week, where the action, part of a broader public employee strike, had caused traffic delays.

Congress approved a $136 billion corporate tax bill last week that would change the payment structure of the excise tax on tires and eliminate quarterly payments of the heavy-vehicle use tax.

Hurricane Jeanne's recent strike on the Southeast, besides causing flooding and disrupting power and port activity, also placed an added burden on truckers to deliver relief supplies in addition to their regular loads, trucking officials said.

American Trucking Associations named its driver and safety manager of the year at the associations’ Safety and Loss Prevention Management Council fall conference Sept. 22 and announced the winners of its 2004 National Truck Safety Contest the same day.

ATLANTA — Tightened capacity, outdated infrastructure and driver shortages will be key issues hampering less-than-truckload carriers in the coming year, analysts and less-than-truckload industry executives said at a shippers’ conference here.

The Environmental Protection Agency said the trucking industry’s lack of interest prompted the agency to cancel its plan to develop “clean corridors” in which fleets could buy ultra-low-sulfur fuel in 2005 to test 2007 diesel engines under actual operating conditions. br clear=all>