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NEW YORK — Carriers and shippers say freight rates continue to drop and with no immediate end in sight, driven by three forces: weak demand, overcapacity and shippers’ moves to cut costs by soliciting new bids.

A wave of transportation mergers and acquisitions may be on the horizon, as the recession weeds out distressed companies and carriers shop for bargains to help them secure more freight, several industry watchers said.

Active Transportation said it bought majority ownership in Jack Cooper Transport, a move that consolidates two car haulers at a time when auto industry sales are at the lowest level since 1981.

A bill to keep states from tolling existing roads in the National Highway System has been introduced in Congress by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas).

An appeals court has upheld federal rules requiring “direct observation” of drug tests for transportation workers who either have failed or refused to take a test as a condition of employment.

Despite recession-related declines in trade with the United States, Mexico’s potential as an economic power has shippers and fleet executives taking advantage of the emerging market there.

Rising crude oil prices helped drive the average U.S. retail price of diesel fuel up 4.3 cents last week to $2.274 a gallon, while higher demand tied to increased summer driving pushed gasoline up nearly three times as much, the Energy Department reported.

Registrations of all new trucks in the United States totaled 79,800 in the first quarter — a drop of 40% from a year earlier — according to the latest survey by R.L. Polk & Co. The quarter included the worst-ever single month for heavy-duty registrations on record, the company said.

The drop in U.S. truck tonnage accelerated in April, plunging 13.2% below the same month in 2008 to the lowest level since November 2001 — just after the 9/11 terrorist attacks — American Trucking Associations reported last week.

U.S. consumer confidence has improved to the highest level since September, according to the Reuters/University of Michigan monthly consumer sentiment index released Friday.