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I am interested in the feedback on fuel prices displayed in “Letters to the Editor.” Unfortunately, most of the letters did not focus on two salient facts affecting the price of oil. The first is the dismal exchange rate of the U.S. dollar versus the euro, and the second is world demand for petroleum products.

The Department of Transportation proposed Tuesday to boost fuel-efficiency standards for cars and light trucks by almost 25% by the year 2015.

Forward Air Corp.’s first-quarter profit was $10 million, or 35 cents a share, compared with $10.3 million, or 34 cents, a year earlier.

Rising fuel costs, weakening demand for freight hauling and the subprime lending crisis are making it tougher for drivers and trucking companies to qualify for financing to buy equipment.

The use of heavier trucks can be an effective way for the industry to reduce fuel consumption and emissions, a new study by the American Transportation Research Institute said.

Brent Hilton, the 2008 chairman of the Technology & Maintenance Council, said one of the focuses of his term will be to increase membership among service dealerships that perform essential “heavy-duty” maintenance for trucking.

Plans by the Chinese government to close factories in and around Beijing and Shanghai this summer to reduce air pollution for the 2008 Summer Olympics could cause early or late peak seasonal surges in exports to the United States, shipping industry executives and transportation experts said.

As I understand the new driver-training rules, they indicate that a company cannot hire drivers if that company has a school for training those drivers. This is in conflict with every training institution in the country — if not the world.

Diesel engine maker Cummins Inc. said Tuesday it opened its first fuel systems manufacturing site outside of North America, the Cummins Fuel Systems Wuhan plant, in China.

As we move closer to the next federal mandate on emissions — which comes into force for 2010-model heavy-duty trucks — proponents of the two competing technologies are beginning to publicly argue over the superiority of their choices.