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TT File PhotoTollbooths are not likely to be sprouting on Interstate highways in Arkansas or elsewhere soon. A March 31 deadline for states to seek admission to a federal tolling program passed without a single applicant.

A rule requiring trucking companies to install reflective tape or reflectors on the sides and rears of older trailers will cost at least $228 million, according to the Federal Highway Administration.

Werner Enterprises this week angrily denounced allegations by Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways that the company’s paperless log system had loopholes drivers could use to violate hours-of-service regulations.

Despite complaints from munitions haulers, the Department of Defense is moving forward with a plan to use a third-party electronic freight payment system to compensate freight carriers.

The chairman of Roadway Express said a slow recovery from a threatened strike in 1998 has forced the company to look for opportunities outside of its core freight hauling business.

The heads of the leading railroad and trucking associations met March 26 to discuss increases in truck cargo capacity and railroad competitive access, spokesmen for both groups said.

Two federal transportation lawmakers are determined to prevent truckers with bad driving records from keeping their commercial driver licenses.

The debate over truck safety moved in a new direction Thursday as the National Private Truck Council called on the Department of Transportation to focus enforcement activities on drivers and carriers with the worst safety records.

The trucking industry would love to put hard-working people like Joe Childress behind the wheel of a big rig. And that’s where he will end up after participating in a program that teams the U.S. Department of Labor with state trucking associations, the PTDI and ATA.

Public Opinion indicates that a lot of people appreciate truck drivers but don’t really understand the nuts and bolts of the industry and may not realize how much it is doing to improve highway safety.