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Washington voters last week scrapped the state’s motor vehicle excise tax and replaced it with a $30 annual fee.

Oregon voters amended the state’s constitution to call for cars and trucks to pay their fair share of highway costs.

Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) is no longer pursuing a criminal investigation of Office of Motor Carrier Safety chief Julie A. Cirillo.

Representatives of diesel engine manufacturers took exception to the timetable for a new Environmental Protection Agency rulemaking proposal, with one accusing the federal regulator of “a breach of faith” at a Nov. 2 public hearing.

Duane W. Acklie, the owner of Crete Carrier Corp. of Lincoln, Neb., and three other truckload carriers, has added flatbed specialist Hunt Transportation of Omaha, Neb., to his trucking portfolio.

Trucking’s leaders went to Orlando, Fla., last week to check on the progress of their national trade organization.

Since casting my first ballot for an Oregon Republican slate in 1944, I’ve seen my party shoot itself in various parts of its anatomy. The self-destruct impulse was again indulged in October when state Republican Party delegates met in Redmond and endorsed AAA’s scheme to overturn the Legislature’s 1999 gas tax increase.

Lee P. Shaffer is a man who knows what he wants. As president of Kenan Transport Co., he engineered two recent acquisitions that have propelled his company to the forefront of the gasoline distribution business. Now he wants to personally lobby Congress on behalf of the industry.

Trucking’s largest trade group went on record Nov. 2 in support of allowing truck drivers to be on duty for up to 14 hours a day as long as they get 10 hours of rest.

Trucking’s chief regulator has some advice for trucking: Relax. “My suggestion to everyone who is having an anxiety attack on hours of service is just chill out until the proposed rule is out,” said Julie A. Cirillo, head of the federal Office of Motor Carrier Safety, in an Oct. 31 speech to the Truckload Carriers Association’s board of directors.