1994:
The Carrier Reform Act was passed. It reduced the time frame customers could file an overcharge claim from 3 years to 2 years. Eight months later, it was reduced to 6 months.
1995:
The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was abolished. The Surface Transportation Board took control of trucking regulations.
1998:
The average cost of diesel was $1.044 per gallon!
1999:
The Motor Carrier Improvement Act of 1999 outlawed Mexican trucking companies from leasing their trucks and drivers to the U.S.
The FMCSA was established.
The price of diesel fuel was $1.12 per gallon.
1999-2000:
The Used Truck Price Crisis, a period of time in which the entire trucking company faced a “virtual crisis” of falling used truck prices, spanned from the fall of 1999 to through the spring of 2000.
“After several years of strong new-truck sales, capped by the record-breaking pace of the past two years, a wave of good, low-mileage tractors flooded the market and depressed prices to the lowest level seen in years. The falling value of their huge investments in equipment left about two-thirds of the trucking companies in North America practically bankrupt under accounting rules. Bankruptcy filings were rampant. This issue was even more important than skyrocketing fuel prices and the ongoing driver shortage,” the IRS states.
The price of diesel was $1.31 per gallon.
2002:
The nation’s third-largest trucking company, Consolidated Freightways, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The carrier employed 20,000 workers.