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Federal regulatory “guidance” issued last week restricted the number of oil and gas well truck drivers who can extend their workdays beyond the 14-hour federal limit under the oil-field operations exemption to hours-of-service rules.

SAN DIEGO — By pulling together broad swaths of diverse data through a predictive modeling tool, carriers can uncover safety risks that probably would have gone unnoticed otherwise, fleet safety officials said.

Motor carriers should be required to review 10 years of driving records for each new driver they hire, the National Transportation Safety Board said last week, citing its investigation of a 2011 bus crash that killed 15 people.

Navistar International Corp. last week reported a $172 million loss in its second quarter, partly triggered by what its top executive said was “a lot of noise and speculation” about Environmental Protection Agency approval of its 13-liter engine, and reshuffled top management in a bid to restore profitability.

For Maryland-based Gunthers Transport, a November 2011 federal out-of-service order was not the end of the road for the family trucking business.

American Trucking Associations last week called on the industry’s chief federal regulator to release the results of a study that the group said could buttress the case for using police reports to determine who is at fault in truck-related crashes.

U.S. Class 8 truck orders continued to slump in May, dropping 23% from year-ago levels and declining for the fifth consecutive month as economic, financial and regulatory uncertainty dampened fleets’ buying decisions, analysts said.

It’s these smaller motor carriers that should be closely watched to ensure compliance. The big-box carriers are doing good work to ensure they are at the level of safety and compliance required for good CSA scores.

In the end, your trucking operation’s success will be predicated, not on what analysts say, pro or con, or what Wall Street does tomorrow or next week but on your own strategies for controlling variable costs, executing the plan and staying firmly on course.

There’s been a lot of energy expended recently as the trucking industry pushes to get the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to adopt a reasonable crash accountability standard.