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NEW ORLEANS — While great trials may provide drama and public fascination, mediation of accident claims — a process that avoids that drama — is daily life for trucking companies and other transportation providers. Those involved with the system said mediation takes special skills and techniques.

American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted truck tonnage index for February fell 1.7% from the same month a year ago, marking the eighth straight year-to-year decline, ATA said late Monday.

Driver turnover at large truckload carriers dropped 13 percentage points last year — the first decline since 2001 — while it rose by an identical percentage at smaller truckload carriers, according to a survey produced by American Trucking Associations.

Average U.S. retail gasoline prices rose 5.6 cents in the past two weeks to about $2.61 a gallon, according to the latest Lundberg Survey of filling stations released Sunday.

Paccar Inc., the parent of Kenworth Truck Co., will temporarily shut down production at Kenworth’s Chillicothe, Ohio, plant, the Chillicothe Gazette reported.

Driver turnover at large truckload carriers dropped 13% last year — the first decline since 2001 — while it rose by an identical percentage at smaller truckload carriers, according to American Trucking Associations.

The trucking industry is willing to pay higher fuel taxes as long as the money is spent to improve the highway infrastructure, American Trucking Associations President Bill Graves said.

The Senate Appropriations Committee Thursday approved an amendment that would prevent Mexican trucking companies from gaining unrestricted access to U.S. highways until American truckers are afforded the same access in Mexico.

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