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WASHINGTON — Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administrator Anne Ferro said she is committed to launching the agency’s new truck safety rating system in July, although she expects there will be problems at the start.

The lengthy and ongoing truck sales drought caused America’s Class 8 truck fleet to contract 2.1% during the fourth quarter, the first such decline since the third quarter of 2008, according to the year-end report on commercial vehicle registrations by R.L. Polk & Co.

WASHINGTON — Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administrator Anne Ferro said she is committed to launching the agency’s new truck safety rating system in July, although she expects there will be problems at the start.

U.S. Class 8 retail truck sales eked out their first year-over-year gain in 13 months in January, inching up 0.2% compared with January 2009, WardsAuto.com reported.

TAMPA, Fla. — Jerry Thrift of Ryder System, Miami, was installed as chairman of the Technology & Maintenance Council of American Trucking Associations during the group’s meeting here Feb. 11.

Truck components maker ArvinMeritor Inc. said Wednesday that its fiscal first quarter earnings and revenues will be flat compared with the first quarter.

RALEIGH, N.C. — The federal stopping-distance rule announced in late July will generate lots of technical choices for truck buyers, but manufacturing executives told fleet managers here the engineering changes should be minimally disruptive.

Class 8 trucks rolled up 139.3 billion miles in 2006, up from 130.5 billion in 2005, according to American Trucking Associations’ American Trucking Trends 2008-2009 report, released this week.

Cummins Inc., the maker of more than one third of North America’s heavy-duty truck engines, plans to invest another $100 million in Brazil during the next four years to meet higher demand in that country, Bloomberg reported.