°®¶¹´«Ã½

The truck-involved fatality rate on the nation’s highways has hit a new low in the latest data provided by the Department of Transportation.

The rate at which fatalities occurred in highway accidents involving large trucks dropped to the lowest level on record, falling 14.1% in 2009 from the previous year, according to an analysis of Department of Transportation data by American Trucking Associations.

American Trucking Associations Chairman Barbara Windsor told a House panel Wednesday that changes are needed to regulations governing hazardous materials shipments in order to improve efficiency and relieve unnecessary regulatory burdens.

Pennsylvania State Police said Wednesday that its officers inspected nearly 1,600 commercial vehicles transporting hazardous materials and issued 790 citations during a one-day enforcement in late March.

The new 70-mile-per-hour speed limit on the Ohio Turnpike, which the state’s trucking industry opposes, has taken effect, the Associated Press reported.

Volvo Trucks North America and the United Auto Workers said they reached a tentative agreement on a new five-year contract for workers at the heavy-duty New River Valley plant near Dublin, Va.

Purchasers of Qualcomm Inc.’s OmniTracs system in Washington state dodged a tax hit following a March 10 decision about the legal classification of that system by the Washington Supreme Court.

Telematics and mobile communications provider Xata Corp., Eden Prairie, Minn., now resells trailer-tracking systems made by SkyBitz, the companies announced March 9.

Several truck makers and industry suppliers said their facilities sustained some damage from the March 11 earthquake in Japan, but they were not expecting it to result in significant supply disruptions to North America.

American Trucking Associations has petitioned federal regulators to issue a new rule to clarify that hazardous material packages should normally be inspected at the point of loading or unloading, and not during roadside inspections.