enate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) has weighed in on the debate over the Office of Motor Carriers.

Setting the stage for what has become an annual debate over how to fund the Surface Transportation Board, the Department of Transportation’s inspector general says it would be difficult for the board to cover the entire cost of its operations through user fees.

The landscape of the 106th Congress is beginning to take shape.

The Federal Highway Administration’s comprehensive truck size and weight study has not been released yet, but it is already raising the hackles of one member of Congress.

Setting the stage for what has become an annual debate over how to fund the Surface Transportation Board, the Department of Transportation’s inspector general says it would be difficult for the board to cover the entire cost of its operations through user fees.

Trucking interests spent $200,000 on television commercials in the hotly contested Nevada U.S. Senate race, according to American Trucking Associations officials.

Congress began its post-election reshuffling last week, with House members choosing leadership teams to guide policy and politics for the next two years.

Freight movements no longer disappear into an information black hole at the U.S.-Mexico border, thanks to a joint venture between government agencies and Roadway Express.

Roadway's new contract with two Mexican trucking company allows it to provide as close to "brand name" service without actually operating the trucks themselves.

Politics makes strange bedfellows, as the state trucking associations in California and Minnesota know all too well. While the California Trucking Assn. supported Democrat Gray Davis in his win over Republican Attorney General Dan Lungren in the Nov. 3 gubernatorial election, Mr. Gray’s close ties to organized labor means trucking will have some difficulties in the months ahead.