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WASHINGTON — Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), author of the rules Congress set for opening the U.S. border to Mexican trucks, told Transportation Secretary Mary Peters she suspected the agency may be stacking the deck in its recently announced pilot program.

A coalition of trucking safety groups issued a report this week giving poor grades to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for failing to do enough to reduce large truck-related fatalities.

Safety-watchdog group Public Citizen said Tuesday it sued the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on behalf of a highway safety organization to compel the agency to release information about recent decision to allow Mexican trucks onto U.S. highways.

Cascade Sierra Solutions, a nonprofit group that promotes the sale of products to help truck drivers save fuel and reduce emissions, said it has opened the first of what could be as many as eight “green truck technology” showrooms along the Interstate 5 corridor in Oregon, Washington and California.

The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed for the first time sharp cuts in exhaust emissions from railroad locomotive and marine engines in a plan a spokesman said would “follow exactly the same pattern” as environmental regulations for truck engines.

The number of heavy-duty trucks in use in the United States increased 5.2% to 3.51 million Class 8 commercial vehicles last year, as fleet owners stocked up on new trucks and kept more old vehicles in service, market research firm R.L. Polk & Co. said.

Transportation Secretary Mary Peters told a congressional panel Thursday that DOT expects the pilot program involving allowing trucks from Mexico to U.S. roads will involve fewer than 1,000 trucks.

Truck drivers need greater flexibility within federal driver work and rest rules to allow them to select sleep times and duration based on individual need, according to a study released jointly by American Trucking Associations and a sleep research firm.

Federal Reserve districts reported some regional slowdowns in trucking in the first few months this year, the Fed said Wednesday in its latest “beige book” survey of economic conditions.

The Department of Transportation’s move to conduct a broad test of opening the U.S.-Mexican border to truck traffic is a prudent step toward honoring mutual commitments made by both nations when the North American Free Trade Agreement was ratified.