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Asche Transportation Services, the Shannon, Ill.-based parent of two refrigerated truckload carriers and a company that hauls municipal solid waste, said it has struck a deal with Churchill Environmental & Industrial Equity Partners to get $7 million in exchange for promissory notes that could give Churchill eventual majority ownership in Asche.

Hauling freight offers a grim but not impossible living, according to two market analysts who addressed an audience of motor carrier finance officers.

Relief could be on the way for trucking companies that can endure into the second half of this year, predicted the chief executive officer of M.S. Carriers, one of the top two dozen trucking companies in the nation in terms of revenue.

It’s nice when government officials do the right thing. We’re referring to the statement by a senior Department of Transportation official last week that it is very unlikely that a final hours-of-service regulation will be issued this year.

It seems that transportation today is constantly bombarded with the same three words — Internet, Internet, Internet. While the advantages of the latest logistics-enabling Dot.com are extolled throughout the press, shippers have yet to discover the real advantage in making a commitment to the Internet space.

Efforts to provide a nationwide port-of-entry pre-clearance process for trucking appear to be rolling into higher gear, with a good push from participating states, but there is still a mountain to climb.

Disputes over the sharing of carrier information are choking progress on a nationwide on-highway truck clearance program, federal officials claim.

Electronic Data Interchange will not be replaced by Xtensible Mark-up Language anytime soon, even if the Internet-spawned alternative is cheaper and less complex, according to comments at a meeting of freight transporters.

Online exchanges may have no role in transportation today, but their time will come — and soon — according to remarks at a workshop on electronic commerce.

A July 7 hearing on the economic impact of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration’s proposed workplace safety rules for railroads, state and local governments and the U.S. Postal Service originally set for Washington, D.C., has been moved to Atlanta on the same date.