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In the last moments before it hands over the reins of power, the Clinton administration is filling four associate administrator vacancies at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

United Parcel Service, the nation’s largest package-delivery company and No. 1 in the Transport Topics 100, this week increased its presence in the logistics industry and international trade by agreeing to purchase the Fritz Cos. for about $510 million, mostly in stock.

For much of the past 20 years, the less-than-truckload segment of trucking has been getting squeezed.

The leadership shuffle in Congress puts a lawmaker with a short record on transportation issues as chairman of a key House Appropriations subcommittee in place of one with extensive transportation experience.

Before he vacates his office Jan. 18, National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Jim Hall plunged a thorn into the trucking industry's side by reiterating his call for mandatory use of electronic onboard recorders, hourly pay for drivers and tighter restrictions on hours a driver can work.

Trucking leaders from sometimes-conflicting segments of the industry are flirting with the idea of jointly submitting a proposal to Congress to mandate some sort of surcharge mechanism when fuel prices increase.

The retail price of diesel fuel edged downward last week amid a barrage of mixed signals that left analysts looking to the weather as the most reliable price determinant.

With a new, almost evenly divided Congress about to begin work, members of the Distribution and LTL Carriers Association are taking a fresh look at several key legislative issues at its 2001 annual meeting at the Sheraton Maui in Hawaii this week.

The Defense Department is slated to approve a new regime for paying fuel surcharges in late January that will then go into effect April 1, according to an official of the Military Traffic Management Command.

Legal disputes over the electronic technology that is supposed to activate a critical antilock braking system warning light have come to a head and now threaten to stop production of truck tractors and trailers.