91ÊÓƵ

Oregon Trucking Associations hired Michael G. Moises as president and elected Mike Card as chairman of the board, filling two vacant spots at the organization.

This afternoon's headlines: Trucker protests cause some Canadians to do without; UPS to stop some shipments of handguns; and Detroit Diesel takes part in emission reduction demonstration.

in the news this morning: Calif. plan calls for cleaner diesel trucks; Overnite sues Teamsters for defamation; and Penn. State Police snare speeding truckers, motorists in I-78 crackdown.

As support snowballs for a separate motor carrier safety administration, the Federal Highway Administration continued to take body blows for its failure to adequately enforce safety regulations and for its sluggishness in issuing a final rule on hours-of-service regulations.

Amid shipper protests, the Surface Transportation Board voted to suspend truck freight rate increases proposed by four motor carrier rate bureaus while the board investigates the hikes.

The Department of Transportation says it will not release the scientific basis of new hours-of-service regulations for truck drivers before a proposal is unveiled.

The Environmental Protection Agency is reportedly planning to cut truck tailpipe emissions up to 90% more than the already strict new levels that diesel engine makers have agreed to meet by 2002.

About 6:30 every morning, Urbano Petrizza arrives at the RPS Inc. terminal here dressed in an RPS uniform and picks up his RPS van. But he's not an employee: He's an independent contractor.

Reflecting a changing business and legal environment, the ATA Litigation Center is taking a new direction and focus, the American Trucking Associations president told 150 lawyers attending a conference on highway accident litigation in Beaver Creek, Colo., last week.

On Sept. 29, a select group of Florida truckers set out to become the extra eyes and ears watching and guarding the highways.