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The latest dot.com entrant in the trucking business isn’t a “virtual” company at all, but rather an amalgamation of six major truckload carriers determined to make the Internet work for them, even as fuel prices and driver-related costs continue to climb.

It was a dream. Speed limits were up, fuel was cheap, credit was easy and freight was plentiful. Then the crash of fuel prices going through the roof woke us up.

There’s no shortage of reasons to be pessimistic about the state of the truckload industry. Fuel costs are up, used truck prices are down and drivers are in short supply. The Fed is raising interest rates, and stock prices are in the dumper.

The Information Technology and Logistics Council is preparing for what members say will be a great conference even as staff members pack boxes and prepare to close up shop.

The Maintenance Council selected officers for the coming year and honored members for their achievements during its annual meeting.

When Robert Jackson graduated from a truck driver training school and got his commercial driver license, he was a truck driver in the eyes of the federal government, but D.M. Bowman Inc. saw things differently.

When you call and get put on hold with Commercial Driver Training Inc. in West Babylon, N.Y., you don’t have to listen to a Muzak version of “New York, New York” or a tape-looped woman swearing your call is important to her. Instead, the hold message is an upbeat sermon about how you can turn your life around by becoming a professional truck driver — if you sign on with CDT.

What does a retired champion professional truck driver do when he wants to give back to his profession?

The 13-year-old commercial driver license program is good, but it could be even better, government officials and trucking groups say.

Oregon officials are concerned that commercial driver license applicants have memorized how to perform perfect pre-trip inspections but wouldn’t know a real problem if it fell off the truck in front of them.