The U.S. Supreme Court handed down two victories for trucking company management last week, placing strict limits on who can sue their employers under the Americans With Disabilities Act. In the case most crucial to the industry, the court ruled unanimously that a truck driver who is nearly blind in one eye cannot sue his employer for discrimination, after the grocery store chain fired him because of his disability.

Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa placed Local 19 in Grapevine, Texas, under control of the International union, following the resignation of local president J.D. Potter. Hoffa named Joe Darmento, a 10-year Teamster veteran from Louisville, Ky., to serve as trustee on an interim basis. Local 19 has about 3,500 members in four states, most of whom work in airline-related industries.

The Teamsters union and Anheuser-Busch, which have been locked in an often acrimonious labor dispute since November 1997, have agreed to terms of a five-year contract. The St. Louis based brewery committed in the agreement to keep all eight of its breweries open for the life of the contract.

TT File PhotoThe House late Wednesday approved a transportation spending bill for 2000 that authorizes $27.7 billion for highways, a 9% increase over 1999. The measure also puts $105 million into the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program, which funds roadside inspections.

Does the Department of Transportation’s inspector general have the authority to go after trucking companies suspected of serious violations of federal motor carrier safety regulations? Inspector General Kenneth M. Mead and DOT say yes. Attorney Anthony J. McMahon, representing a half-dozen companies he says were “raided” by agents from the Office of Inspector General, says absolutely not.

Donald J. Schneider, president of Schneider National, made it onto Forbes magazine's 1999 list of the world's richest people. He is listed as having a net worth of $1.0 billion, coming in at number 458 on a list of 465.

The focus was squarely on the bottom line at the first full board meeting of the Truckload Carriers Association since it opted to focus resources on “management issues” and leave policy advocacy to American Trucking Associations.

It will be harder for disabled people to sue employers for discrimination under the Americans With Disabilities Act, now that the U.S. Supreme Court has seriously limited the law's reach in a trio of trucking-related cases.

Prospects for reforming driver hours by general consensus withered when the Transportation Department released a report June 10 that recommended against trying to bring interested parties around the table to work out a new regulation.

By the end of this month, the Supreme Court is expected to rule on three cases that could change who gets to drive commercial trucks in the United States.