President-elect George W. Bush named Norman Y. Mineta, a former chairman of the House Public Works and Transportation Committee, to head the Department of Transportation.

American Trucking Associations intends to file a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia asking that trucking be exempted from the government’s new workplace safety rules.

David S. Addington, senior vice president and general counsel of American Trucking Associations, is leaving the trucking federation for a job in the new Bush administration.

American Trucking Associations said the Department of Transportation, in designing its hours-of-service proposal, ignored most of the 62 executive orders and legislative mandates in place to guide the development of sound rulemakings and underestimated the costs to the industry.

The Motor Freight Carriers Association said it would be better for the less-than-truckload sector to continue working under the current 63-year-old rules governing drivers than adopt the revisions to the hours of service proposed by the Department of Transportation.

A new set of standards on cargo tiedown and securement could be in force as early as July 1, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

Motor carriers that are delinquent in paying fines levied by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will be taken off the road, under a rule that goes into effect April 16.

Diesel, the lifeblood of the trucking industry, was under the microscope of the Environmental Protection Agency in 2000, with the most sweeping changes occurring late in the year when the agency issued its fuel rules for 2006.

Workplace safety regulations that would cover more than 100 million people at 6 million workplaces will become the law of the land in 2001 unless the new president or the courts see it differently.

American Trucking Associations said the Department of Transportation, in designing its hours-of-service proposal, ignored most of the 62 executive orders and legislative mandates in place to guide the development of sound rulemakings and underestimated the costs to the industry.