ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Qualcomm Inc. officials said their new untethered trailer-tracking device had gotten a fast start in the marketplace, with 33,000 orders booked since August, 10,000 of those already shipped.

In response to congestion around Chicago, two major railroads said they have begun a three-month process to divert some shipments around North America’s largest rail hub.

SAN ANTONIO — Less-than-truckload carriers Yellow Transportation and Roadway Express may now be jointly owned, but they continue to compete, a Yellow executive said, even while cooperating on issues such as technology integration.

SAN ANTONIO — Shippers, carriers and brokers can all benefit from technology, provided it is tailored to their specific needs and not simply speeding up existing processes, said speakers and participants at a shippers’ technology committee meeting.

SAN ANTONIO — Groups representing brokers and shippers approved a model contract last week that they said could facilitate negotiating transactions between companies in those businesses.

Platinum Equity said last week it would rename the transportation-information unit it bought from Aether Systems Inc. to GeoLogic Solutions Inc., and was searching for a new chief executive officer to run the unit. latinum Equity said GeoLogic would become profitable in 2005.

With government demands for transportation security remaining high in the post-9/11 era, security software vendors are bringing products to market to help with that critical task. However, trucking companies purchasing the technology are insisting that the systems must pay for themselves — either through higher productivity or higher freight rates.

The Technology & Maintenance Council said it planned to host a nationwide skills competition for truck technicians at its September 2005 fall meeting in Valley Forge, Pa.

WASHINGTON — The Southern Motor Carriers Rate Conference asked the Surface Transportation Board to allow the rate bureau nationwide ratemaking authority for less-than-truckload routes, saying it would allow its members the ability to set rates in the territories where they provide service.

Pay for dry-van truckload company drivers jumped 2.8% from spring to summer and was projected to rise further by the end of the year as pay scales have made their biggest gains in 10 years, according to the National Survey of Driver Wages.