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The wide-ranging, free-form Internet with its limitless information vista is a business marvel — and an insurance liability, according to a transportation consultant.

The Laredo of yesteryear – the image is of a dusty, hot Texas border city with streets forever clogged by queues of trucks crossing the Rio Grande — is gone.

Sales of Class 8 trucks in the United States continued to slump in June 2000, with the biggest sales drop —23.1% — posted by the biggest of the original equipment manufacturers, Freightliner in Portland, Ore.

Trucking companies carrying loads into Canada will be required to use unique carrier identification numbers in 2001, according to the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration does not know how it will achieve Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater’s aim of cutting the number of truck-related deaths in half by 2009, the General Accounting Office says in a new report.

Refrigerated carrier executive William Grojean says carriers in his sector are heading for a day of reckoning because of difficulties in getting rate increases and paying drivers enough.

Government officials are putting truckloads of faith in technology to help reach the goal of 50% fewer truck-related fatalities by 2010, and manufacturers have responded by rolling out their first test vehicles under the Intelligent Vehicles Initiative.

A driver for Overnite Transportation has told federal officials that he was paid $10,000 to falsely accuse Teamster supporters of vandalizing property at the trucking firm in order to get them fired, the New York Times reported Tuesday.

The Laredo of yesteryear – the image is of a dusty, hot Texas border city with streets forever clogged by trucks — is gone. Trucks are still everywhere, but route changes have had a big impact on the city.

In the news this morning: Truck sales slip due to rise in fuel costs; Peterbilt announces layoffs in Tennessee; DaimlerChrysler reports solid quarter but warns of possible second-half slowdown; and more.