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Congress agreed to a $500 billion budget package Thursday that includes Department of Transportation and highway funding for fiscal 1999, but left at least one key trucking issue unresolved: Will the Office of Motor Carriers get a new home?

Caliber System is outsourcing EDI. The Akron, Ohio-based transportation and logistics giant recently signed a five-year deal with Sterling Commerce, Columbus, Ohio, whereby Sterling will assume responsibility for all of Caliber's electronic data interchange activities.

The nation’s pagers went down last week, but the freight apparently kept moving.

Although they are at least a year away from production, Allison Transmission introduced three automatic trans-missions, including two models that will expand the com-pany’s capacity in the medium-duty ranges. The third is for the light commercial truck market.

U.S. Xpress Enterprises filed suit against Employee Solutions Inc. after the Phoenix-based professional employer organization unilaterally terminated its contract with the Chattanooga, Tenn.-based trucking company.

A new service from United Parcel Service will take overnight letters off airplanes and send them flying through cyberspace.

Umthun Trucking Co., Eagle Grove, Iowa, has changed hands after 51 years of family ownership.

Consolidation is a fact of life in trucking.

Ruan, perhaps the biggest trucking name in Iowa, is working with it's home state Department of Transporta-tion to speed up the vehicle titling -- and maybe save a few trees along the way.