Dieter Zetsche, head of DaimlerChrysler commercial vehicle division, was named as his replacement. Supreme Court Hears Clean Air Case American Trucking Associations, industry groups and three states argued early November before the U.S. Supreme Court that the Environmental Protection Agency exceeded its administrative authority in establishing new state standards to regulate ozone and airborne particulate matter in 1997. The court is not expected to make a decision until at least next July. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has to hit the regulatory accelerator, so to speak. The agency needs to write more than 12 new regulations and complete three major studies in the next two years, largely because of new legislation triggered by the Firestone tire failures.
Several rules are due for proposal in the spring.
Also, a rollover standard for trucks is being sped up. Putting vehicle defect files on the Internet is another goal. The Internal Revenue Service is looking for a way to standardize its process for examining accounting on truck tires and their efforts could affect fleet accounting procedures, according to a taxation committee within American Trucking Associations. In the past, when tires were used up and disposed of within 12 months, it was acceptable to consider them a one-year expense. Currently there is no set standard for how to write off a truck tire.