Press time- 12 hours and counting: Truckers are reckoning with NJ Gov. Christie Whitman's bomb proposing truck restrictions on local roads. On July 13, she announced she is implementing an emergency plan that will prohibit large interstate trucks from using local roadways as through routes or short cuts between National Network highways. The emergency plan reportedly will be in effect for 60 days, enough time for NJ lawmakers to introduce legislation in September to make it law. Whitman says big trucks that are not doing business in New Jersey "have no business" using their local roads.

Other breaking news
Have you been nailed with defective container chassis or trailers? Changes have been proposed to Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) regulations that currently place upon motor carriers (and drivers) the responsibility of maintaining intermodal container chassis and trailers. A rulemaking is being considered.

For those of you who haul intermodal containers chassis or trailers, OOIDA would like hear of your experiences. We need your comments by Aug. 30. Call us at 1-800-444-5791, write us at OOIDA (Container Comments), PO Box L, Grain Valley, MO 64029. If you are online, go to our web site at www.ooida.com   for more information and a special questionnaire.

Inside this issue
On the July 5 strike effort, don't skip over Todd "Been-There-Done-That" Spencer's comments, "Desperate Measures."

Also, for those of you concerned that Sen. John Chafee's weight-distance tax proposal will reduce truck traffic to mini-vans, see "Washington Insider." Decide for yourself how it will affect you.

Crime alert
The FBI and law enforcement agencies in Virginia are asking for help from truckers. A virtual family of pirates, based in Richmond, has allegedly been preying on truckers. The family is accused of abducting truckdrivers and hijacking rigs since 1996. They are also accused of killing an owner-operator named Samuel Lamb, still missing. Two brothers in their 20s are in custody and we learned just prior to press time that their mother has been arrested as well. All three were indicted by U.S. District Court grand jury and could face the death penalty.  The indictment also alleges the abduction of another trucker named John Wesley Cummings on April 10. He was bound with duct tape and left in a remote location. Other hijackings are under investigation. If you've been approached by anyone fitting the description or have additional information, call the FBI at the number at the end of the article.

For those members who receive the "Members Only" edition - more on the Ohio's "commercial vehicle enforcement index." Does this mean troopers have a quota on truck citations? See it for yourself.