A chapter ended at Transport Topics last week with the departure of longtime editor and reporter Thomas M. Strah, who embarked on a sabbatical that will include extensive travel and study abroad.

A coalition of safety-oriented groups filed a lawsuit against the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to review the truck driver hours-of-service rules the agency issued in April.

North American truck inspectors reported mixed results for the trucking industry during this year’s Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance Roadcheck enforcement event, with a slight increase in the percentage of vehicles placed out of service but a small decrease in the number of drivers ordered to shut down.

WASHINGTON — Federal lawmakers and transportation industry officials reiterated their determination to pass a new six-year highway spending bill this summer, despite talk among some lawmakers that Congress may extend the current plan for one year and take up the multiyear package again in 2004.

The Transportation Department’s Research and Special Programs Administration designed its new hazardous materials transportation security planning and training rules to be flexible and not overly burdensome, an agency official said June 9.

American Trucking Associations, the Arkansas Trucking Association and Wayne Smith Trucking Inc. have sued to stop the state of Arkansas from charging back sales taxes to trucking companies that register their vehicles in Arkansas after taking advantage of Oklahoma’s lower taxes.

NEW ORLEANS — The leadership of the National Tank Truck Carriers signed off here last week on a deal to reaffiliate with American Trucking Associations.

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association is calling on its 95,000 members, and all other commercial drivers, to strictly follow all federal truck safety regulations during June to highlight the pressures truckers face from carriers, shippers and receivers to bend the rules.

WASHINGTON — Transportation companies do not yet realize how much new security requirements are going to cost them, a senior Democratic staff member on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee said last week.

Tank truck carrier executives said they were being deluged with requests from shippers to sign contracts in which they assume all liability for accidents and mishaps even if the shipper is at fault.