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Low distillate inventories, which have worried oil market analysts all summer, continue to be a concern as the winter season approaches.

The price of diesel fuel jumped 2.4 cents to the fourth consecutive record high while the price of oil seesawed against a backdrop of rising pressure on the White House to pump oil from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve into the volatile market.

An economic slowdown will hurt trucking this year, but growth will make truck traffic rise at an annual rate of 3% to 3.5% a year between 2002 and 2005, according to one of the industry’s leading economic analysts.

A drop of more than 10% in van trailer shipments was the main factor in a 5.3% drop in overall trailer shipments during the first seven months of the year.

An economic slowdown will hurt trucking this year, but growth will make truck traffic rise at an annual rate of 3% to 3.5% a year between 2002 and 2005, according to one of the industry’s leading economic analysts.

A drop of more than 10% in van trailer shipments was the main factor in a 5.3% drop in overall trailer shipments during the first seven months of the year.

The way has been cleared for Sue Bailey to assume the position of administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association says American Trucking Associations is hurting his group’s efforts to get a national fuel surcharge law by remaining neutral on the plan.

Diesel fuel prices rose two cents a gallon to a new record again last week against a backdrop of rising economic concern that could finally overcome White House resistance to tapping the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Freightliner Corp. has authorized its dealers to begin inspecting some 45,000 trucks, tractors and buses that are equipped with a potentially defective antilock braking system which has been recalled by Bendix Corp.