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NEW ORLEANS — An environmental consultant said many trucking companies were unaware that they will be hit with tightened federal oil-spill prevention requirements for aboveground fuel tanks that take effect next summer.

Truckers may cruise Interstate 25 without stopping at a scalehouse now that the highway has become the first major trucking corridor in the nation to be completely wired for electronic weigh station bypass, according to state authorities.

In-truck computers to monitor driver hours were endorsed by some of the largest trucking companies in the country when the Arkansas Trucking Association voted last week to support the proposed federal mandate for “black boxes” on trucks.

The National Transportation Safety Board says part of the truck parking problem is that when all the usual spaces are filled, drivers do not know where to go after a day on the road.

Truckers may cruise Interstate 25 without stopping at a scalehouse now that the highway has become the first major trucking corridor in the nation to be completely wired for electronic weigh station bypass, according to state authorities.

The mandatory “weekends” that drivers would be required to take under the Department of Transportation’s hour-of-service proposal would cut into trucking productivity more than any other provision of the regulations — possibly by as much as 28%, according to a consultant’s study.

The National Transportation Safety Board says part of the truck parking problem is that when all the usual spaces are filled, drivers do not know where to go after a day on the road.

In-truck computers to monitor driver hours were endorsed by some of the largest trucking companies in the country when the Arkansas Trucking Association voted last week to support the proposed federal mandate for “black boxes” on trucks.

Oregon voters overwhelmingly defeated a ballot measure that would have repealed the state’s weight-distance tax on trucks, added a diesel fuel tax and increased the state tax on gasoline.

In the multi-million dollar advertising war over Measure 82 that pitted Oregon Trucking Associations against the American Automobile Association of Oregon and Idaho, the truckers expected to fight the auto club’s deep pockets. But funds opposing a weight-distance tax repeal also came from an unexpected source.