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Police believe engine trouble may have caused a small car to stall on Georgia 400 Sunday afternoon, causing a crash with a tractor-trailer that left all of the car's six passengers dead. No charges are likely to be filed against the truck driver, 61-year-old Robert Louis Moore of Decatur. Moore works for Davenport Trucking, a contractor that carries mail for the U.S. Postal Service.

The president of the Oregon Senate declared there will be a single, decisive vote on a 5-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax increase that includes a move by trucking to replace the state’s weight-mile tax with a tax on diesel fuel. “We will have one vote, and that is all,” state Sen. Brady Adams said June 21. “Either there is support or there isn’t.”

Deaton Inc., a flatbed and dry van truckload carrier based in Birmingham, Ala., has boosted mileage pay for drivers by an average of 12%, with pay rates for the most experienced drivers rising more than 21%. President Jerry Crews said the company is hopeful that the extra pay will attract better quality drivers and improve service to customers.

On June 17, a load of steel moved from Maryland to Pennsylvania and ushered in a new Web site — eflatbed.com — for truckers serving the metals industry. Launched by Pittsburgh Logistics Systems, the site allows flatbed carriers to view available freight lanes across the United States and parts of Canada.

An industry-wide shortage of truck drivers has prompted one St. Louis-based company to search for workers in the Caribbean island nation of Barbados. Hogan Transports Inc. is hiring 75 to 100 Barbadians from the former British colony to drive its big rigs. Company president David Hogan expects the drivers to arrive within 90 days.

Six people returning from a church service died after an 18-wheel mail truck slammed into the back of their car Sunday, pushing them into a culvert along Georgia 400. The driver, apparently an independent driver for the U.S. Postal Service, suffered only minor injuries.

Spokesmen for two of the nation’s major railroads — Norfolk Southern and CSX — conceded that their service has “just not been good enough” in the wake of their split-up of Conrail. However, both companies insist things were improving. But some intermodal trucking companies suffered along with the two railroads, as shippers turned to over-the-road truckers.

Some union members were stunned that top Teamsters leadership presented a tentative labor contract with Anheuser-Busch Inc. in such glowing terms. Critics of the contract — which covers bottlers, distillers, truck drivers and mechanics at Anheuser-Busch's 12 U.S. breweries — say it differed little from two other versions that the members rejected last year.

Citing the increased use of information technology within the industry, American Trucking Associations has created a new policy committee devoted to the issue. ATA’s board of directors voted June 18 to create a new Technology & Engineering Committee that incorporates the current Technology Advisory Committee and the engineering component of the Safety & Engineering Committee.