Considering that all batteries have a finite life span, harnessing sunlight is one way to keep tracking systems running for long periods on far-flung trailers.

Nearly 20 years ago, biometric identification was touted as a high-tech way of ensuring the validity of commercial driver licenses. What has happened to biometric IDs since then is a story of failed initiatives, some success and 9/11’s intrusion on the still-unresolved debate over standards.

European buyers now have the option of equipping a new Mercedes-Benz Actros so that it can “clamp down” the full braking power of tractor and trailer — without any action by the driver, but only in certain emergency situations.

TARRYTOWN, N.Y. — If a business enterprise has not reviewed its telephone service in the past two years, it may be surprised at the potential for “tremendous savings” produced by routing calls over the Internet, a maturing and now reliable technology, a communications expert said here.

WASHINGTON — Some 250 vehicles of all classes equipped with 2007 engines are now in the hands of customers for real-world testing, according to Byron Bunker of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Transportation Air Quality.

Everyone who drives a truck glances frequently at the dashboard to check on speed, the fuel gauge and how vehicle systems are performing.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Surveying an assembly of 350 customers or business partners, the founder of McLeod Software Inc. said the turnout at his company’s annual Users’ Conference would have been even greater if truckers weren’t so busy.

OAK BROOK, Ill. — Truck operators will continue to seek some form of federal aid or tax relief to help offset the cost of buying cleaner-burning diesel engines to meet tougher emissions standards in 2007 and, especially, 2010, said American Trucking Associations President Bill Graves.

OAK BROOK, Ill. — Truck component maker Hendrickson International plans to have a new suspension unit for Class 8 trucks ready for sale in 2005, a company official told reporters here.

MEXICO CITY — The Mexican trucking industry’s 10-year drive toward modernization has created a mismatch between late-model equipment and old-school maintenance practices for many fleets, according to industry officials who addressed the first conference of the Technology and Maintenance Council ever held in Mexico.