Key congressional leaders last week agreed to a legislative plan that would delay implementation of new hours-of-service rules for trucking for at least one year, according to congressional sources.

Executives from trucking companies large and small offered detailed accounts to federal officials of the costs their companies would incur if the hours of service regulations proposed by the Department of Transportation took effect.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration soon should have sharper teeth to go after motor carriers that are in arrears in payment of fines and penalties.

In an August incident of alleged road rage in Pennsylvania, a truck driver was charged with using his big rig to push a stalled car more than 12 miles down Interstate 83 at speeds of up to 60 mph. The trucker was said to be angry because he felt that the car’s driver had cut him off.

House-Senate conferees on the Transportation Appropriations Committee agreed Tuesday morning to prohibit the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration from implementing its controversial hours of service rules during the 2001 budget year.

Executives from trucking companies large and small offered detailed accounts to federal officials last week of the costs their companies would incur if the proposed hours-of-service regulations took effect.

With reports now widespread that a deal has been struck to delay any change in truck drivers’ allowable hours for at least a year, as earlier reported by Transport Topics, questions remain about when the deal will be formalized.

A United States senator and an official of a diesel engine manufacturer proposed to put the brakes on a environmental rulemaking that would reduce the level of sulfur in diesel fuel by 97% as of June 1, 2006.

Senate and House conferees will meet sometime Wednesday to discuss the Department of Transportation’s controversial proposal to curb truckers’ hours of service, which is part of the transportation appropriations bill.

Six diesel engine manufacturers have asked the federal government to allow them to install a computer program in model 2003 engines that would shut off pollution control equipment to prevent engine damage under certain driving conditions.