Shop Talk discussions at the summer meeting of The Maintenance Council covered issues ranging from air compressor replacement to the pros and cons of owning or leasing truck wash racks. Shop Talk encourages individuals to discuss maintenance-related issues and compare experiences with other truck maintenance experts.

In a continuation of the yo-yo-like gyrations that many analysts said were over, the national average price of diesel fuel has risen 2.3 cents a gallon over the past two weeks, after dropping 2.4 cents over the previous four weeks. On June 21, the price stood at $1.082 a gallon, 1.4 cents above the previous week’s level of $1.068 and 0.1 cent below the level on May 10, according to the Department of Energy.

Spokesmen for two of the nation’s major railroads — Norfolk Southern and CSX — conceded that their service has "just not been good enough" in the wake of their split-up of Conrail. However, both companies insist things were improving. But some intermodal trucking companies suffered along with the two railroads, as shippers turned to over-the-road truckers.

Volvo, rumored in the past to be a possible purchaser of at least two other companies, has surfaced as the possible object of an acquisition by DaimlerChrysler. Dagens Industri, a daily business newspaper in Sweden, cited unnamed sources in reporting that the German-U.S. automaker will bid at least $17.7 billion for Volvo, the maker of transportation, construction, marine and aerospace equipment based in Stockholm, Sweden.

Shipments of trailers and chassis continue to drop off their pace of 1998, when they broke the previous record set three years earlier. April figures slipped 2.3% from the previous month, according to a preliminary count from the U.S. Bureau of Census. Complete trailers and chassis totaled 23,361 for April vs. 23,905 for March, indicating the downward trend that started off the year has not let up.

Shipments of trailers and chassis continue to drop off their pace of 1998, when they broke the previous record set three years earlier. April figures slipped 2.3% from the previous month. Complete trailers and chassis totaled 23,361 for April vs. 23,905 for March, indicating the downward trend that started off the year has not let up.

On June 17, a load of steel moved from Maryland to Pennsylvania and ushered in a new Web site — eflatbed.com — for truckers serving the metals industry. Launched by Pittsburgh Logistics Systems, the site allows flatbed carriers to view available freight lanes across the United States and parts of Canada.

Spokesmen for two of the nation’s major railroads — Norfolk Southern and CSX — conceded that their service has “just not been good enough” in the wake of their split-up of Conrail. However, both companies insist things were improving. But some intermodal trucking companies suffered along with the two railroads, as shippers turned to over-the-road truckers.

In a continuation of the yo-yo-like gyrations that many analysts said were over, the national average price of diesel fuel has risen 2.3 cents a gallon over the past two weeks, after dropping 2.4 cents over the previous four weeks.

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.