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Rep. Frank Wolf, a Virginia Republican, vowed to get Congress to support his plan to move the Office of Motor Carriers from the Federal Highway Administration to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

What a year it was for lawyers, labor unions and lobbyists. And not a bad year for business, either.

They might as well post a sign at the entrance to the Alexandria, Va., headquarters of American Trucking Associations, saying “Welcome to the New ATA.”

Highway spending dominated the first half of 1998 as Congress worked to complete a massive surface transportation bill. No sooner had President Clinton signed the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century into law than trucking safety was thrust into the spotlight by a proposal to place the Office of Motor Carriers in a new home.

A solid gain in Transport Topics’s Trucking Stock Index masked the fact that most trucking stocks faired poorly in 1998.

Labor issues intruded upon an otherwise marvelous business environment for the trucking industry in 1998.

The debate on hours of service, which became trucking’s top regulatory priority in 1998, may have taken a favorable turn for the industry.

There were no dull moments for the Federal Highway Administration in 1998. In addition to a restructuring undertaken last year, the agency lived in fear of losing jurisdiction over its Office of Motor Carriers, which has been criticized for getting too cozy with the industry that it oversees.

As the Environmental Protection Agency looked under the hood and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration got closer to climbing into the cab, the trucking industry fended off increased federal regulatory supervision on two fronts in 1998.

The DaimlerChrysler merger created the first global manufacturer of a full range of passenger and commercial vehicles, and shook the automotive industry, which had resisted consolidation.