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Anthony D. Portanova is the new deputy commissioner of Connecticut’s Department of Motor Vehicles. He will oversee the agency’s Commercial Vehicle Safety, Dealers and Repairers and Auto Crime Investigative divisions.

Gov. George Ryan signed laws that force Chicago-area trucks to undergo annual emissions tests and give trucks greater leeway on portable scales.

USFreightways Corp. entered the truckload market a year ago with the purchase of Glen Moore Trucking of Carlisle, Pa. Now, USF Glen Moore has acquired Underwood Truck Line of Brazil, Ind.

Con-Way Transportation Services, the nation’s fourth-largest less-than-truckload carrier, announced a new base for its fuel surcharge formula Aug. 2, as the national average price for diesel rose again, to $1.146 a gallon.

The drive to create a separate federal agency specializing in the issues and interests of trucking moved into high gear last week, dramatically improving the chances that such a unit will be in operation before too much more time passes.

The government has an opportunity to seize the moment and advance safety even further by reforming the archaic hours-of-service rules in a science-based fashion. It will be sad, indeed, for the trucking industry, as well as for the motoring public, to end up with rules that advance the political interests of a few while jeopardizing the many.

The new president of Navistar International’s Truck Group would like to change the truck-buying culture by reducing — or even eliminating — the customization that is an accepted part of the purchasing and manufacturing markets.

J. Steven Keate’s plan to reduce customization in Navistar International’s Truck Group generated a mixed reaction among the other truck manufacturers.

Fighting against economic re-regulation and for approval of the sale of Conrail, railroads far outspent trucking on lobbying in 1998, according to a report by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Integrating less-than-truckload, truckload, logistics and freight forwarding services into one company is incredibly difficult. But one company has done it successfully: USFreightways Corp.