������ý

Manufacturing activity levels in the Chicago region expanded in April at the fastest pace in five years, the Institute for Supply Chain Management-Chicago said Friday.

Intermodal rail traffic rose 15.1% last week from the same week a year ago, the Association of American Railroads said.

A shipper may hire a truck for any of a variety of reasons: Perhaps there is a long distance to cover or the load requires more space than available in the trunk of a car.

Oil rose almost $1 Friday to close the trading week near an 18-month high over $86 a barrel, Bloomberg reported.

Review of the 2007 generation of diesel engines has been a very hot topic this year. At the annual American Trucking Associations Technology & Maintenance Council meeting, I was one of the panelists asked to score the performance of the 2007 engines based on TransAm’s experiences.

Thank you to our readers for the many favorable comments we’ve received in response to the special report on CSA 2010 that Transport Topics produced as part of the April 26 issue.

Truck maker Navistar Inc. has dropped its lawsuit in state court alleging that the California Air Resources Board planned to adopt the Environmental Protection Agency’s formal “guidance” as its policy for the use of selective catalytic reduction technology to meet federal 2010 diesel engine emissions reduction standards.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration was criticized during a Senate subcommittee hearing last week for not doing enough to clamp down on unsafe trucks, particularly with regard to driver hours of service.

UPS Inc.’s less-than-truckload unit is headed for a return to profitability in 2010 as part of a companywide increase in earnings, which jumped 32.9% in the first quarter, officials said last week.