When Gregory T. Swienton was hired as president of Ryder System in 1999, he made safety a top priority of the company while undertaking an ambitious corporate restructuring.

NEW YORK — A panel of trucking executives painted a generally optimistic outlook for the nation’s economy based on recent freight trends.

NEW YORK - Kevin Knight, chairman of truckload carrier Knight Transportation, said that his firm has filed a breach of contract suit against Freightliner LCC, claiming the truck manufacturer failed to honor its four-year rolling truck purchase agreement.

Transport Topics Publishing Group has made several changes in its editorial staff, creating two new editor positions, promoting two reporters and naming a managing editor for Transport Topics Press.

For most of the past 20 years, for-hire trucking companies have steadily picked up more of the freight that manufacturers and other corporations used to distribute in their own trucks.

Insurers are beginning to offer limited terrorism insurance coverage to U.S. businesses, although industry officials say a federal backup plan under consideration by Congress is still needed to cover catastrophic losses.

SAN DIEGO — Executives of the six major U.S. truck manufacturers predicted a slowly improving truck market, citing an upturn in used truck values and downplaying worries about the changeover to cleaner-burning diesel engines later this year.

The urge to merge is as strong as ever in the truck leasing and rental business as companies seek ways to become more efficient, control costs and expand into new markets for logistics services and dedicated contract carriage.

President Bush’s decision to impose tariffs ranging from 8% to 30% on certain steel imports for a period of at least three years is likely to raise the cost of manufacturing truck equipment, but it remains to be seen how much of the cost increase will be passed along to buyers.

Thousands of truck driving students have been sent home and scores of training schools may yet be forced to shut down because of the loss of funding for student loans, according to industry sources.