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Solved. The Back Page is considering changing its name to Back Page Solutions but we are still trying to figure out what are the questions. Goodbye? Workers at the Department of Transportation certainly enjoyed the 25-minute video tribute to Secretary Norman Y. Mineta at the department's recent employee awards ceremony. To some it looked almost like a departure tribute. Meeting. There were only a few moments of tension at the joint meeting of the NITL, IATA and the TIA in San Antonio as far as we could tell. One came as a trucker sidled up to a shipper on the sprawling trade show floor, deadpanning, "Sorry I didn't make it to dinner last night, I was up late raising my rates and figuring out new accessorials." Assessed. Unfortunately, attempts to work out agreement on accessorials in San Antonio fell flat. At a forum on the extra charges, panel leader Dick Macomber of IBM tried to charge carrier reps $1 apiece to ask a question during the q-and-a and carriers fired back by adding fuel surcharges. At least we like to think that happened. Swift Floats. Swift Transportation chief Jerry Moyes drew plenty of attention for his lively keynote address at the NITL/IANA/TIA meeting. Never mind the PowerPoint charts, the most creative moment was when he posted a photo of Kevin Knight, founder of Knight Transportation, young, shirtless and looking decidedly untroubled by driver shortages and fuel costs. We anxiously await Knight's PowerPoint response. Zzzz. Surface Transportation Board Chairman Roger Nober notes that as many as 700 people have logged in online to watch STB hearings. We hear the Web site's traffic has really surged since some online gambling outfits started setting odds on rail abandonment decisions. Barging. We loved The New Yorker story Nov. 15 by John McPhee, who took a barge trip down the Illinois River. Our favorite line comes from a ferryman who tells the towboat, "Keep her coming, I don't want to slow down the economy."
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