������ý

WASHINGTON — Standing alongside three Class 8 trucks parked outside the White House, President Joe Biden described a federal apprenticeship program designed to accelerate commercial driver license training as a “key ingredient” to boosting recruitment efforts in trucking.

Applicants are being sought to serve two-year terms on the new Women of Trucking Advisory Board of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to promote the role of women in trucking careers.

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance has petitioned federal trucking regulators to add a maximum time and/or mileage limit to clarify the definition of personal conveyance use by commercial truck drivers.

DETROIT — BMW has halted production at two German factories. Mercedes is slowing work at its assembly plants. Volkswagen, warning of production stoppages, is looking for alternative sources for parts.

Federal trucking regulators have granted Werner Enterprises Inc. an exemption to allow a commercial learner permit holder who has successfully passed a commercial driver license skills test to operate a commercial vehicle without having a CDL holder observing from the front passenger seat.

The Panama Canal Authority proposed a comprehensive restructuring of its toll system April 1 that would increase rates charged on cargo such as vehicles, oil and gas, and soybeans that cross the waterway as ocean shippers rake in record profits.

The Biden administration ordered carmakers to increase their average fuel economy to about 49 mpg by 2026, in an ambitious effort to make up for progress stalled when President Donald Trump rolled back the efficiency program.

America’s employers extended a streak of robust hiring in March, adding 431,000 jobs in a sign of the economy’s resilience in the face of a still-destructive pandemic and the highest inflation in 40 years.

With the largest infusion of direct federal infrastructure spending set to begin, port leaders from around the country say they’re ready to begin rebuilding and upgrading their facilities to keep up with a record number of cargo containers moving through ports.

The rise in fuel prices is slowing a decline in spot rates while also potentially suppressing base revenue for some carriers, experts said.