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TT’s 15-page financial review of 1999 makes it clear that the year that was, was the year of the Internet. It was the year that trucking discovered — and was discovered by — the personalized Digital Age.

“Joe Smith’s on-board recorder indicts him as a killer,” the plaintiff’s attorney said, pacing before the jury. “He’d driven that huge truck longer than the law allows, and he’d been speeding. This is not conjecture — it’s fact, plain as day, as good as carved in electronic stone. It’s irrefutable that Joe Smith was tired, careless and driving too fast — and he drove his truck right into the plaintiff, crippling him for life.”

It should have been a banner year for trucking companies in 1999. The U.S. economy was robust and demand for freight-hauling was strong. Although bedeviled by a shortage of drivers and rising fuel costs during the second half of the year, many trucking executives and industry analysts thought they saw an end to overcapacity and a real opportunity to raise rates and boost razor thin profit margins.

A new study puts a positive spin on the environmental and safety aspects of the fossil-fuel-powered truck and its kin.

A proposal to require trains to sound whistles or horns at grade crossings unprotected by gates came under fire July 18 from members of Congress and municipal officials opposed to the noisy warnings.

Funding for U.S. Customs automation in fiscal 2001 has hit a new snag. While the House version — with an additional $105 million for Automated Commercial Environment development and $123 million for the Automated Commercial System — easily passed, the Senate version contains not one dollar for ACE.

A provision buried in a 100-page Senate appropriations bill would extend the U.S. Customs Service’s merchandise processing fee from April 2003 to April 2010. The action has raised a few eyebrows on Capitol Hill because legislation dealing with customs appropriations has historically been initiated in the House.

Transportation unions plan to back candidates in 34 congressional districts as part of the AFL-CIO’s efforts to elect a more pro-labor Congress and White House.

The AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department is raising a warning flag on the Department of Transportation’s proposal to use electronic on-board data recorders to track whether long-haul truck drivers are complying with hours of service regulations.

Higher rates and a more profitable mix of freight boosted earnings of Overnite Transportation Co. in the second quarter.