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Finance and leasing industry officials said a proposal to reclassify equipment leases as a form of debt or asset, rather than an expense, would be difficult and costly for most companies to comply with.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s decision to cut the maximum allowed stopping distance for large trucks by 30% will increase truck buyers’ costs somewhat, but will not force a widespread shift to new technology such as air disc brakes, industry groups and manufacturers said.

Iteris Inc., which makes lane-departure warning systems for the trucking industry, said Thursday its fiscal first-quarter profit decreased from a year ago.

Sprint Nextel Corp., the third-largest U.S. wireless carrier, plans to pay Ericsson AB as much as $5 billion to manage its networks, offloading the expense of running its own systems.

Third-party logistics firm Quiet Logistics has tripled the capacity in its Kiva Mobile Fulfillment System in less than six months, Kiva said.

Freight brokers and other third-party logistics providers say their non-asset-based models are helping them to steadily gain market share during the ongoing recession.