Pennsylvania officials said the state recently began conducting roadside tax audits to ensure trucking companies and shippers were paying their taxes, adopting a tactic truckers traveling through New Jersey have faced for years.

The New York State Motor Truck Association recently began offering a system that it said will easily allow truckers to bypass weigh stations and tolls in many states with just one cab-mounted device and to secure deeper discounts than they could on their own.

The new president of the American Highway Users Alliance said she could not at this time support a federal fuel tax hike to fund highway improvements.

The federal agency in charge of hazardous materials transportation finalized rules that require many hazmat truckers and shippers to implement security plans and give employees security training.

The Tax Court of New Jersey issued a finding that a state hazardous material transporter fee was the type of flat fee that violated the U.S. Constitution and so was not valid.

Port terminal operators on both the East and West Coasts have begun to respond to truckers' and shippers' requests that they stay open longer to reduce congestion and allow drayage companies to do more deliveries a day, a port group said.

WASHINGTON — The National Transportation Safety Board said the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration still lacks the ability to ensure unsafe trucking companies are not allowed to enter the business, despite new rules it put in place this January.

The drive to "electrify" truck stops and cut big rig idling is gaining momentum after lying dormant in 2002, with the federal government funding projects and private business taking the plunge, according to several sources in the trucking industry.

States facing record budget shortfalls are eyeing ways to boost revenues that could adversely affect trucking companies' bottom lines. Revenue-enhancing measures proposed include eliminating sales tax exemptions, increasing fees and taking money from funds covering highway improvements.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Doug Bereuter (R-Neb.) told agricultural haulers last week that he planned to introduce legislation that would safeguard the exemptions they currently enjoy from the rules governing commercial driver hours of service.