°®¶¹´«Ã½

ORLANDO, Fla. — American Trucking Associations' President Bill Graves told truck stop owners that ATA would no longer push to allow private businesses to offer fuel and parking services directly on interstates as a way to create more truck parking.

New details of a proposal to expand Interstate 81 through Virginia show that it would be one of the most expensive toll roads in the country and that truckers would have to start paying the tolls years before they could use the improved highway.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — The Food and Drug Administration unveiled two food shipment security proposals, adding to the growing list of anti-terrorism regulations that some in trucking said add complexity and costs to the industry and the national economy.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush relaxed the state's weight restrictions on tractor-trailers so truckers could haul emergency produce shipments and help farmers cope with an unusual cold snap.

Truckers and railroads fought last week for exemptions from a new federal rule that would prohibit certain people, including non-U.S. citizens and former felons, from possessing or hauling explosives.

A pair of construction firms submitted proposals to repair Interstate 81 through Virginia and impose tolls on trucks using the highway.

 The Business Council of Alabama said it had named former American Trucking Associations' head William J. Canary its new president.

WASHINGTON — Truckers and shippers blasted a new security proposal from the Customs Service, saying it would destroy current logistics practices and threaten just-in-time deliveries.

WASHINGTON — The head of one of the nation’s largest trucking companies said increasing truck size and weight should be the industry’s biggest priority when Congress takes up its new highway spending plan this year.

Although the next round of tougher diesel emissions standards will not take effect until 2007, the engine making industry is actually facing a tight schedule if it wants to design and build new engines in time to avoid a repeat of last year’s buy-ahead-and-bust cycle, trucking experts said.