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With investors flocking to brokerage and logistics firms, Wall Street is sending a signal to non-asset-based transportation companies: Give us more.

Carriers take a sizable hit on the bottom line – an $8,200 hit on average – when they have to replace a driver, according to a study conducted for the Truckload Carriers Association.

The intent is a good one, but some of the details are devilish, industry representatives told the Department of Transportation at a public meeting on a long list of proposed changes to the drug and alcohol testing regulations.

In the news this morning: NJ terminal opens 2 new gates to truckers; Volvo, Renault Trucks reportedly in talks; and Mack's Gigou says truck makers need long-term solutions to used truck problems.

This afternoon's headlines: Deutsche Post sticks to IPO plan despite EU probe; Koch Petroleum to provide soybean-based biodiesel to bus, truck fleets; and Landstar System moving Ligon subsidiary to Jacksonville, Fla.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed early Wednesday to put more oil on the market to ease soaring fuel prices and meet growing demand.

Members of the Truckload Carriers Association voted March 22 to reject a plan to integrate the 762-member organization with American Trucking Associations.

The federal government unveiled a plan to give truck owners an economic incentive to retrofit older diesel engines with equipment that will bring their emissions in line with today’s pollution standards.

Federal officials are starting to worry about the ability of diesel engine manufacturers to live up to the stipulations in a 1998 consent decree that sets stricter pollution standards for model year 2003 engines.

The national average price of diesel fuel dropped this week for the first time in seven weeks, to $1.479 cents a gallon, on expectations that oil-producing countries will agree to produce more petroleum.