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With parking lots for boardinghouses as many as 26 nights a month and pressure to get loads to their destinations, it’s little wonder that truckers get limited rest and exercise, and don’t eat well.

American Trucking Associations, industry suppliers and motor carriers are chipping in to develop a multimillion dollar national advertising and image campaign that stresses trucking’s essential nature and safety record.

It doesn’t always take a customer, shipper, dispatcher or manager to appreciate a truck driver. Sometimes the greatest recognition of all comes from right at home. Driver Bobby Goines Sr. found that out when his son won Chattanooga, Tenn.’s first Father of the Year essay contest.

If sales of Class 8 trucks keep going the way they are, the dawn of the new millennium will see more than 250,000 rigs less than a year old plying the nation’s highways.

Two truckload fleets are going the extra mile to bring in drivers. Barr-Nunn Transportation is putting photos of drivers on the sides of its trailers, while Maverick Transportation has launched a new training program to promote a more satisfying work environment.

United Parcel Service says delays in service from CSX Corp. and Norfolk Southern Corp. are getting worse, forcing the package carrier to divert more traffic from the rails to the highways.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services will spend more than $1 billion over five years to convert its fleet of 9,000 cabover truck tractors to conventional tractors, company officials said Thursday.

This afternoon's headlines: Canadian highway plan disappoints trucking reps; Corpus Christi begins work on reefer facility; and Rail-sponsored study blasts Canadian truck safety.

This afternoon's headlines: Ruan tests collision-avoidance system; Truck driver saves man from burning car; and New travel center to offer drivers more than gasoline and food.

The Surface Transportation Board would have to do more to ensure competition between rail carriers, under legislation introduced by Rep. Jack Quinn (R-N.Y.).