91ÊÓƵ

Walter Sutton has been named acting deputy administrator of the Federal Highway Administration, replacing Gloria Jeff, who resigned earlier this month to rejoin the private sector.

The national average price of diesel fuel dipped to $1.307 on Jan. 10, the first drop in three weeks, tracking a drop in crude oil prices to $24.23 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Forward Air Corp., a Greeneville, Tenn.-based carrier whose stock price has soared from $9.13 a share to $50.25 a share over the past year, has announced a 3-for-2 stock split.

Private firms kicked in $53 million toward the National Transportation Exchange's efforts to match empty long-haul trailers with shippers.

Spending on third-party logistics grew 16.5% to an estimated $46 billion in 1999, according to Armstrong & Associates, a research firm in Stoughton, Wis.

This afternoon's headlines: Hub Group launches home delivery service; New Jersey nixes overtime pay for truckers; and Cushing elected to board of Trailer Bridge.

In the news this morning: N.J. Gov. Whitman signs bill setting fines fortruck ban violations; Proposed Calif. rule on diesel engines fuels debate; and Texas Trucking Assoc. to offer safety seminars.

TTNews.com will be closed Monday, Jan. 16, for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday. Please check back on Tuesday, Jan. 17, for the latest trucking and freight transportation news.

Frozen Food Express Industries is restructuring its operations, eliminating about 150 non-driver employee positions and reducing the size of its trailer fleet by more than 20%.

Trucking labor historians will look back on 1999 and note that it was the year a second Hoffa took over the helm at the Teamsters union and frustrations with port operations on both coasts came to a head.