The federal government received mixed reviews for its efforts to improve intermodal freight transportation from participants in a Transportation Research Board conference on the future of containerized transportation.

A federal commission is likely to recommend criminal background checks for people involved in moving freight through the nation’s ports.

The latest round of rail mergers has the Department of Transportation weighing a stronger “public-private partnership” with freight railroads, according to one official at the Federal Railroad Administration.

Congressional support for releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve grew this week as lawmakers flocked to support an American Trucking Associations-backed resolution urging the Clinton administration to take the action to help stabilize fuel prices.

DOT officials think the proposed merger of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Canadian National railroads will spur another wave of consolidations, leading to the creation of a second transcontinental line.

Trucking’s chief federal regulator defended the effectiveness of her agency before Congress last week, revealing that deaths from truck-related crashes in 1999 fell 3% from the previous year.

The federal government received mixed reviews for its efforts to improve intermodal freight transportation from participants at a recent conference on the future of containerized transportation.

A federal commission is likely to recommend criminal background checks for people involved in moving freight through the nation’s ports.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is planning eight weeks of hearings on its controversial ergonomics proposal beginning March 13 to accomodate the hundreds of people who wish to speak.

A top DOT official says transportation interests must decide who should be responsible for maintaining intermodal containers and chassis or state regulators may decide for them.