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The proposal for revamping the federal government’s hours-of-service rule for truck drivers that a coalition of interest groups released recently illustrates just how little these political theorists understand about highway safety and the business of moving America’s freight.

The U.S. Department of Transportation in June awarded grants totaling $6.25 million to five states to “ease truck parking shortages on U.S. interstates.”

Transport Topics Online will be closed on Monday, July 5, for the Independence Day holiday. Please check back on Tuesday, July 6, for the latest trucking and freight transportation news.

Tim Lynch, American Trucking Associations’ top lobbyist, said last week he would leave the federation in July to join a Washington, D.C., law firm’s government affairs department.

The federal government’s Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010 is supported by the trucking industry but needs some changes, a trucking executive testifying for American Trucking Associations told a congressional panel Wednesday.

About the two May 17 “rate setting” letters: It’s important for trucking companies to understand that we are the ones who set the rates.

Despite occasional hyperventilation from advocacy groups and some politicians, trucking’s safety performance is steadily improving and the industry’s dedication to playing its part in keeping America’s highways safe should be unquestioned.

President Obama’s recent announcement that he was kicking off a major effort to improve the fuel efficiency of commercial vehicles was welcome news to the trucking industry.

Reading the May 24 “Opinion” column on how hard it would be for the smaller freight brokers to exist with a higher bond, my heart goes out to them, but my sympathies run with the trucking companies that use these brokers, small or large.

American Trucking Associations, truck manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have urged the Senate to address a research and development bill on increasing fuel efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in medium- and heavy-duty trucks.