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MINNEAPOLIS — ABF Freight System truck driver Ralph Garcia had to make a choice between being at the hospital for the birth of his first grandson or competing here in the 2012 National Truck Driving Championships.

Heavy-duty truck manufacturers have improved the fuel efficiency of their tractors through a combination of new technologies, powertrain improvements, enhanced aerodynamics and efforts to reduce rolling resistance.

New engine technologies and improved aerodynamics have yielded significant fuel efficiency gains for carriers running post-2010 heavy-duty trucks, but some fleet executives said they are encountering some new maintenance issues.

Allied Systems Holdings Inc., the largest U.S. car hauler, last week filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the second time it has done so, saying it’s continuing to provide service and blaming weakness in the car and light-truck business for the move.

For 18 years, regulators have been wrestling with a congressional mandate to issue a rule prohibiting trucks from proceeding into railroad crossings unless there is adequate space on the other side to avoid getting trapped on the tracks.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Permanent repair kits for defective ATR-6 traction-relay brake valves are moving to truck makers, executives of Bendix Commercial Vehicle System said.

Officials of brake manufacturer Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems said they are wrestling with the challenge of manufacturing and distributing replacement parts for a defective valve that could cause braking problems, which prompted federal and heavy-duty truck manufacturer recalls.

Garmin Ltd. recently recalled 796,000 Global Positioning System navigation units in the United States, but the company’s trucker-specific GPS navigation handheld was not affected, the company said.

Never mind the deliveries you want to make on time — the deliveries you don’t want to make at all may be the best reasons to invest in a navigation system designed specifically for commercial truck operations.

The changes the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is making to its CSA safety-monitoring system will lead to increased enforcement in the two areas that correlate least with future crash risk, an examination of the revisions has found.