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MONTREAL — Truck shows used to be primarily for fleets to view and buy new equipment. But these days, many carriers are becoming exhibitors and the commodity they’re in the market for is drivers.

Trucking failures doubled in the first quarter of 2013, reaching the highest level in nearly two years, and will keep rising because fleets’ costs are increasing twice as fast as revenue, according to a new investment report.

Trucking and transportation stock indexes have increased more rapidly over the past six months than those for the broad market, with most of the growth coming since the start of 2013.

The Maryland Motor Truck Association will oppose a transportation funding plan put forth by Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) that includes a new sales tax on motor fuel and a 5-cent reduction in the gasoline tax but not in the diesel tax.

Trucking fleets wasted some $27 billion on fuel and wages as their vehicles sat in traffic jams around the country during 2011, according to a new report from Texas A&M University’s Transportation Institute.

Spurred by the demands of newer diesel engines, changing emissions technology and escalating competition, truck-stop operators say they have begun placing more fuels and other products where drivers can find them fast and buy them with a single swipe of a credit card.

Used Class 8 truck sales declined in December from a year earlier as vehicle prices increased and average mileage trickled lower, according to ACT Research.

With a new highway funding bill signed into law and the U.S. business community anxiously awaiting the outcome of the presidential election, American Trucking Associations President Bill Graves said the federation’s upcoming annual conference will take place during a “transitional moment” for the industry.

Göran Nyberg has been appointed president of Volvo Trucks, North American sales and marketing, effective Oct. 1.