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Jurisdiction over truck and bus safety should remain within the Federal Highway Administration, Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater said. In a June 18 speech to American Trucking Associations board of directors, Slater said the department’s goal of cutting in half the number of truck-related fatalities over the next decade would best be achieved by beefing up existing programs.

During separate forums hosted by the American Trucking Associations, lawmakers offered leaders feedback — and praise — on key industry topics. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) called for a delay on an ergonomics rule, while Senate Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) raised the industry for its role in passing the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st century.

The Teamsters union and Anheuser-Busch, which have been locked in an often acrimonious labor dispute since November 1997, have agreed to terms of a five-year contract. The St. Louis based brewery committed in the agreement to keep all eight of its breweries open for the life of the contract.

TT File PhotoThe House late Wednesday approved a transportation spending bill for 2000 that authorizes $27.7 billion for highways, a 9% increase over 1999. The measure also puts $105 million into the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program, which funds roadside inspections.

DaimlerChrysler AG is talking with Volvo AB about buying what's left of the Swedish automaker after the sale of its passenger car division to Ford Motor Co. last January, the business daily Dagens Industri reported Wednesday. What's left is a lot: Volvo AB's profitable truck, bus, construction equipment, marine and aeronautical divisions.

Three weeks into the division of Conrail between Norfolk Southern and CSX railroads, incompatible computer systems have caused so many problems that United Parcel Service, their biggest intermodal customer, has pulled 50% of its traffic off both railroads and put it back on the highways.

Don’t look for a negotiated rulemaking on hours of service. Prospects for reforming driver hours by general consensus withered when the Transportation Department released a report June 10 that recommended against trying to bring interested parties around the table to work out a new regulation.

American Trucking Associations doesn’t plan to actively lobby for passage of legislation allowing states to increase maximum truck weights to 97,000 pounds. Instead, the organization’s board of directors was expected to vote June 18 to create a productivity task force to examine truck size and weight as part of a big-picture look at ways to improve efficiency in trucking.

The national average price of diesel fuel bounced to $1.068 per gallon, rising nine-tenths of a cent from the previous week’s average of $1.059 and reversing a four-week slide. The increase was driven in large measure by a 5-cents-a-gallon increase in California.

Political clout and policy discussions were the main attractions at American Trucking Associations’ Summer Leadership Meeting, which featured appearances from top lawmakers, reporters and regulators.