NEW ORLEANS — Business for transportation intermediaries is booming, with freight brokers claiming as much as 80% of all the profit in the truckload segment.

Truck and engine dealers and independent repair shops are trying hard to persuade truck fleets to outsource more of their maintenance work, but can they satisfy their customers?

Many of the truckload carriers that have fueled the truck sales boom in recent years are now cutting back on purchases and keeping equipment on the road longer because of a slowing economy.

Overnite Transportation Co. said it will appeal a decision by a three-judge panel that would force the company to bargain with the Teamsters at four terminals where a majority of employees voted against union representation in 1995.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott told a closed-door meeting this week of American Trucking Associations’ Executive Committee not to expect tax cuts for business in the $1.6 trillion tax bill now before Congress, but to wait for another bill later this year or in 2002.

American Trucking Associations’ President Walter B. McCormick Jr. said Monday that trucking has an opportunity to “play offense” on key legislative issues – such as tax relief, truck size and weight, fuel and emissions regulations, ergonomics and drivers’ hours-of-service rules.

With new cargo securement regulations emerging from the Department of Transportation, carriers are worried that enforcement of the new rules will be spotty.