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The Transportation Department’s recent proposal to use electronic onboard recorders to monitor driver hours is “weak” and ineffective, safety advocacy groups said last week, while some trucking industry organizations applauded the plan.

Click here to write a Letter to the Editor. The problem is not with the “black box,” it’s with the 14-hour rule. We are not children, we are professionals. So why doesn’t anyone understand the problem? We are always up against the wall when it comes to hours of service.

I may be missing something, but it seems to me that the U.S. motor carrier industry is lagging behind the vessel industry’s container security accomplishments to the point that it could threaten this nation’s security.

Driver Gets Life in Smuggling Deaths • New Passport Rule Takes Effect • Okla. Study Cites Cellphone Accident Hazards • N.D. Lawmaker Wants 40-Mph Minimum on Interstates

USA Truck Wednesday announced the promotion of Jerry Orler to chief executive officer.

Crude oil prices surged more than $2 a barrel Tuesday after Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said President Bush plans to double the size of the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve by 2027, Bloomberg reported.

Truckload carrier Werner Enterprises’ fourth-quarter profit fell 16% to $24 million or 31 cents a share, from $28.8 million or 36 cents a year earlier.

The average price of retail diesel fuel fell 3.3 cents to $2.43 a gallon, the Department of Energy said Monday.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp.’s fourth-quarter profit jumped 21% to $519 million or $1.42 a share, from $430 million or $1.13 a year earlier, the railroad said Tuesday.

Eastern freight railroad CSX Corp. reported fourth-quarter earnings of $347 million or 75 cents a share, up from $237 million or 52 cents a year earlier.