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Tolls. To paraphrase the late Ronald Reagan, “There they go again.” The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which controls all the access from New Jersey to the nation’s largest city, has slapped trucks with higher tolls that will skyrocket 163% by 2015 to $105.

Retail diesel prices fell 2.1 cents a gallon to $4.127 last week, the U.S. Department of Energy reported, continuing a recent pattern of modest cost fluctuation after sharp increases earlier in the year.

The expanding use of tolls on U.S. roads and significant toll increases are serious threats to the trucking industry and its customers, Steve Grabell, chief financial officer for National Freight Inc., told a Senate subcommittee last week.

The U.S. Department of Transportation said it soon will award grants to state agencies to study the safety of trucks running heavier than allowed by current federal law.

Business in the first quarter was better for most trucking companies than the first three months of 2011, according to returns from publicly traded fleets and comments from privately held firms.

Trucking continues to be the dominant mode of freight transportation in the United States, with the industry hauling 67% of all freight in 2011, American Trucking Associations said in its latest edition of “American Trucking Trends.”

A ruling by the California Supreme Court has given employers little clarity about a controversial law governing employee rest breaks, the state’s trucking association said.

New and updated standards from SAE International involving handling maneuvers, braking, corrosion testing, electrical systems and windshield wipers are expected to again have a significant effect on the trucking industry, several industry experts and manufacturers have said.

CHENNAI, India — Daimler AG officially opened its massive plant here on April 18, as the world’s largest commercial vehicle maker tries to push its way into what has become the fastest-growing truck and bus market in the world.

The House of Representatives last week abandoned its efforts to pass a long-term transportation reauthorization bill of its own and voted to go to conference on the $109 billion, two-year bill already approved by the Senate.