For one major parcel courier an important technique for moving packages is truck-rail intermodal, the placement of truck trailers or cargo containers on flatcars for the linehaul segment of transportation.

A small number of vendors to the industry are investigating to see if trucking fleets might some day consider paying for nitrogen rather than using free air to fill up the tires of their rolling stock.

Indifference to trailer tracking by flatbed-fleet managers may be cracking, at least a little. A Texas-based carrier said it would outfit its fleet with the devices, and technology vendors said they see the sector as an open market.

Sales of knockoff and counterfeit parts are causing losses in the aftermarket industry and generating potential reliability problems for customers that buy them, said an industry report and manufacturing executives interviewed by Transport Topics.

If the glass industry had been stronger in the late 1950s, Vernon E. Garner might never have set foot on the path that led to his being confirmed last week as chairman of American Trucking Associations for 2002-03.

The bankruptcy of Consolidated Freightways amounts to a “sea change” for the less-than-truckload freight business that will bring greater yields but demonstrates the need for still more consolidation, the chairman of Yellow Corp. said.

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) has joined those pressing the Bush administration to postpone the Environmental Protection Agency’s Oct. 1 deadline for heavy-duty diesel engines to meet new emission standards, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.

While a Senate subcommittee examines recommendations to crack down on oil companies charged with manipulating supply to prop up fuel prices, the world’s main oil cartel is having trouble keeping the price of crude oil where it wants it.

Consumer spending helped moderate the recession, but it also takes some of the zing out of the recovery, news reports said Monday.

The potential for a new oil embargo loomed Thursday as traders awaited the outcome of talks at the United Nations.