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Continuing economic growth and mounting trucking costs, especially for driver pay, will set the stage for higher freight rates in 2000, Management Outlook Forum panelists agreed.

Logistics and distribution trends spearheaded by a changing economy and electronic retailing have begun to drastically alter the face of trucking.

Truck drivers hold the key to success for much of the industry in 2000, but a carrier executive and the leader of an owner-operator group disagree on the best approach to keep the ranks filled.

When it comes to relying on high-tech devices such as on-board data recorders in an effort to improve safety, many truckers need convincing.

Hours-of-service reform is so highly politicized that even Washington insiders don’t know what the final rule will look like once all the dust clears. And as for across-the-board increases in size and weight limits for commercial trucks this year, trucking companies should not hold their breath.

A steep decline in orders for new Class 8 big rigs in 2000 may be a result of a fundamental change in trucking, a transportation research analyst thinks.

The Department of Transportation made several improvements in highway safety last year, Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater said at a recent press session, and it hopes to go even further in implementing the Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act enacted in December.

Transportation software pioneer Yossi Sheffi has returned to finish a job he started before the Internet showed it could revolutionize logistics and freight planning.

Rumbling from the latest proposed rail merger involving U.S. and Canadian companies got louder at the first public session of an organization created to track the progress of the Conrail breakup, which took place in June.

USFreightways Corp. has agreed to acquire Transport Corporation of America, a large publicly owned truckload carrier based in Minneapolis, for USFreightways stock valued at about $150 million.