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WASHINGTON — Victor Mendez, the Obama administration’s choice to head the Federal Highway Administration, said safety and productivity would be among the factors he would consider when examining possible changes to federal truck size-and-weight limits.

Despite the lack of a new, long-promised federal stopping-distance rule for heavy-duty trucks, brake companies are making — and original equipment manufacturers are offering — a growing array of electronic systems designed to help truckers stop faster and maintain more control.

The average price of a gallon of diesel fuel jumped 7.8 cents last week to $2.352 a gallon, the highest level since December, while gasoline rose another 8.9 cents as crude oil pushed near $70 a barrel, the Department of Energy reported.

Truck and engine manufacturer Navistar Inc. has challenged the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to certify heavy-duty diesel engines using selective catalytic reduction to meet the agency’s 2010 emission standards, saying EPA skipped an important regulatory step.

President Obama will nominate Anne Ferro, president of the Maryland Motor Truck Association, to head the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the White House announced last week.

I find it very odd that when Washington needs something from the people, they talk about family, but when the people need something from the government, they talk about business. This kind of duality of conflicting agendas contradicts reason and confuses everyone. Even if it is unintentional, it smacks of doublespeak.

The U.S. unemployment rate jumped half a percentage point to 9.4% in May from 8.9% in April, but employers cut the fewest amount of jobs in eight months, the Labor Department said Friday.

Oil topped $70 Friday before falling to close the trading week at more than $68 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg reported.

FedEx Corp. will report $885 million in costs for its fourth fiscal quarter ended May 31 to write down the value of its Kinko’s Inc. and Watkins Motor Line acquisitions, Bloomberg reported.

Logistics and delivery firm Dynamex Inc.’s fiscal third-quarter profit fell to $1.6 million, or 17 cents a share, from $3.8 million, or 37 cents, a year ago.