With less than three weeks before the Transportation Security Administration’s extended deadline for states to begin background checks of truckers hauling hazardous materials, industry officials said the government had yet to release any information about the process.

As the end of a “soft enforcement period” for new federal rules governing truck driver hours approached, law enforcement and industry officials said they were ready for fines for violations.

The Virginia advisory panel reviewing proposals to expand Interstate 81 in the state recommended a plan that would separate trucks from automobile traffic and charge all vehicles — passenger cars as well as trucks — to use the highway, the state transportation department said.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is looking at the possibility of mandating technology to monitor hazardous-material truck shipments, the agency’s top official said.

Trucking interests in Missouri have begun organizing opposition to a pair of bills working their way through the General Assembly that would open the way for tolls on three major truck routes and two planned bridges.

American Trucking Associations last week put the finishing touches on a new image campaign designed to build a positive impression of trucking and its importance.

Although wide-base single tires may be something of a novelty for most U.S. freight carriers and the market is still very small, a handful of component manufacturers are rolling out technology to keep single tires fully inflated on trailers.

WASHINGTON — As U.S. highways become more congested and vehicles get more fuel efficient, tolls rather than fuel taxes will become the dominant method for funding transportation improvements and maintenance, finance experts said at the Transportation Research Board’s annual meeting here last week.

A recent survey by the Virginia Trucking Association of its members and their customers showed that trucking companies would try to avoid Interstate 81 if tolls were imposed on the highway.

Of almost a dozen states that have regulations restricting prolonged truck-engine idling, only a few loosen those rules in the interest of driver health and comfort on cold winter months.