������ý

The unemployment rate dropped in November to 8.6%, the lowest in more than two and a half years, while the economy added 120,000 jobs, including 3,600 trucking jobs, the Labor Department said Friday.

U.S. retail diesel prices slipped back below $4 a gallon last week, but the 4.6-cent decline in the national average price provided little comfort to truckers who are still paying 80 cents more a gallon than they were at this time last year.

Advanced transportation management systems (TMS) have long provided automation and functionality that help plan, optimize, manage and execute transportation more accurately and productively than — to be blunt — a human being.

U.S.-based freight railroads and their major customers, including intermodal fleets, raced last week to prepare for what could be the first nationwide rail strike in two decades as soon as Dec. 6.

The regulation banning truck drivers from using handheld phones while they drive will take effect Jan. 3, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said Friday.

A lack of information-sharing between two Department of Transportation agencies with safety responsibilities is jeopardizing the safety of hazardous materials shipments, the head of the freight brokers’ trade association said.

Truck drivers will face fines of up to $2,750 for using handheld phones while driving and suspension or revocation of their commercial driver licenses for repeat offenses, under a regulation announced last month.

Of course, concerns persist about electronic onboard recorders (“FMCSA Drops Its 2012 Electronic Log Rule Aimed at Carriers With Major HOS Offenses,” 11-21, p. 3). EOBRs are unconstitutional and should be outlawed.

American Trucking Associations and its affiliate in Alabama are at odds over the state’s certification requirement for truck drivers who transport metal coil, with the national federation arguing that the regulation should not be enforced and the state association supporting the requirement.

Several heavy-duty truck manufacturers have succeeded in their drive to make 13-liter engines their new main on-highway power plant, according to R.L. Polk & Co. data, although some engine makers and fleets said 15-liter models will hold their own.