United Parcel Service was singled out by assistant Labor Secretary Charles Jeffress, who oversees the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, for not testifying at the controversial ergonomics hearings.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration underestimates the negative effects that its ergonomic rules would have on trucking, according to trucking’s largest lobbying group.

As the decade wears on, trucks will be burning a cleaner type of fuel, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, but it probably will be a more costly diesel.

The Environmental Protection Agency stepped up efforts to make existing diesel engines run cleaner by reducing particulate matter, which goes hand-in-hand with its plans to reduce sulfur content in diesel fuel by 2006.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration underestimates the negative effects that its ergonomic rules would have on trucking, according to the American Trucking Associations.

With fuel prices falling and major road and aviation projects needing funds, the Senate voted 56-43 last week not to roll back the 4.3-cent a gallon federal excise tax on diesel and gasoline.

Truck companies that haul spent nuclear fuel from commercial reactors could face having to equip their tractor-trailers with much-scorned “black boxes” and complying with strict standards to carry the cargo.

Roadway Express has until April 12 to tell a federal appeals court why it should not have to turn over employment records to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in a case involving charges that the company refuses to promote blacks or hire women.

The Good News: Diesel fuel prices are expected to fall to an average of $1.38 a gallon this summer and drop another four cents by year’s end should domestic refiners meet high production expectations, and imported oil shipments continue to flow.

The good news on diesel is that prices are expected to drop to an average of $1.38 a gallon this summer, but the bad news is that a new sulfur standard for diesel due out soon could force up diesel pump prices between 2 and 25 cents a gallon.