Trucking Business News

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Transport Topics business coverage focuses on the financial, economic, and commercial aspects of the modern freight business. Looking at both the microeconomic and macroeconomic forces shaping bottom lines, the news in this category includes labor news, jobs reports, tonnage and sales indicators, operations analysis, money and banking, mergers, acquisitions, e-commerce, bankruptcy, insurance issues, and more.

FuelBusinessSafetyGovernmentEquipment

Westport Begins Trading on Nasdaq

Westport Innovations, which makes alternative fuel transportation technologies, said Monday it has begun trading on the Nasdaq stock market.

August 18, 2008
BusinessFuelGovernment

UPS Expands Domestic Air Service

UPS Inc. said Monday it is offering “significant enhancements†to domestic on-call pickup service in for air packages.

August 18, 2008
GovernmentBusinessSafetyFuel

Sept. 8 Hearing Set for ATA Suit on Calif. Ports’ Clean Truck Plan

American Trucking Associations said the U.S. District Court of Los Angeles has set a Sept. 8 hearing date on ATA’s motion for preliminary injunction on the harbor commissions of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif.

August 18, 2008
FuelBusinessLogisticsGovernment

Editorial: Fuel Prices Power Technology

We’ve now had four reasonably sharp weekly declines in the national average price of diesel fuel. While retail prices have dropped more than 41 cents a gallon over that span, the average is still astronomically high — $1.506 more than the average one year ago.

August 18, 2008
BusinessGovernment

S.C. to Use Sensors to Monitor Bridges

Remote sensors will be installed on bridges on two main South Carolina highways, allowing officials in Columbia to monitor the bridges’ condition, the Associated Press reported.

August 18, 2008
BusinessFuel

N.C. Ethanol Plant to Open Next Year

A $100 million ethanol plant built by a company that also plans to invest in a carbon dioxide plant and a trucking company and is scheduled to open in North Carolina next year, the Associated Press reported.

August 18, 2008
BusinessFuelEquipment

Cummins Reverses Course, Will Use SCR for 2010 Engines

Engine manufacturer Cummins Inc. last week reversed its decision to use only exhaust-gas recirculation to meet 2010 emission standards and said it would instead use urea-based selective catalytic reduction to cut the new engines’ fuel consumption.

August 18, 2008
BusinessSafetyGovernment

Truck-Crash Deaths Fall 4%

The number of Americans killed in truck-related crashes fell 4.4% to 4,808 last year, the lowest total in 15 years, the Department of Transportation said last week.

August 18, 2008
BusinessSafetyGovernment

28 Confident Rookies Among Drivers Heading to Houston for ‘Super Bowl of Safety’

Kenneth Grimmett has been driving heavy trucks down interstates for 14 years, but he’ll be a “rookie†later this week when he climbs inside the cab of a flatbed rig parked in the middle of the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston.

August 18, 2008
FuelBusinessLogisticsGovernment

Diesel Drops 14.9¢ to $4.353 a Gallon

The national diesel average declined 14.9 cents last week to $4.353 a gallon, the fourth straight drop that has lowered the price of trucking’s main fuel by 41.1 cents a gallon, the Department of Energy reported.

August 18, 2008