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The sudden run-up of U.S. retail diesel fuel prices moderated last week, as the average price rose just 0.7 cent to $2.808 a gallon, the Department of Energy reported. Fleet executives, however, said the respite isn’t easing their cost pressures.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, in response to a legal challenge to the current hours-of-service regulations, will completely rewrite the 2008 HOS regulations, issue a proposed rulemaking within nine months and a new final rule in less than two years.

Third-quarter worker productivity jumped to an annual rate of 9.5%, the Labor Department said Thursday.

For more than a decade, the trucking industry has called for an overhaul of the Department of Transportation’s safety fitness measurement and rating systems. Fortunately, DOT heard these calls and soon will implement its new system — Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010. CSA 2010’s measurement component will be rolled out in July 2010; the rating component will be implemented after a future rulemaking process is completed.

The U.S. economy’s service sector slowed its expansion last month, the Institute for Supply Management said Wednesday.

Tank truck carrier Quality Distribution reported a third-quarter profit of $1.4 million, or 7 cents per share, up from $700,000, or 4 cents, a year ago.

Tank truck carrier Quality Distribution reported a second-quarter profit of $1.4 million, or 7 cents per share, up from $700,000, or 4 cents, a year ago.

Transportation and third-party logistics firm Pacer International said its third-quarter profit fell to $600,000, or 2 cents per share, compared with $20.8 million, or 59 cents, a year earlier.

Republican members of the lead Senate committee crafting a cap-and-trade bill Tuesday boycotted the first day of a mark-up session on the legislation.