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The chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, along with representatives of state transportation departments and contractors, urged the Senate to pass a scaled-back version of a jobs bill that would include infrastructure funding, when Congress returns from recess this week.

The transportation and logistics industries must do a better job of recruiting employees and upgrading the skills of current workers to meet the increasing needs of shippers, said several leaders in those industries.

A year into the Obama administration, American Trucking Associations President Bill Graves said the trucking industry’s challenges are primarily regulatory, rather than legislative, because of the gridlock that has enveloped Congress since last year.

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.

The Department of Transportation’s freight transportation services index for December fell 4.1% from a year earlier but did not change from November, DOT said Thursday.

Transportation and third-party logistics firm Pacer International said its fourth-quarter profit grew to $10 million, or 10 cents per share, compared with a $64 million loss, or $1.83 cents, a year earlier.

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.

John Ruan, founder of Ruan Transportation Management Systems, died Saturday, the company said. He was 96.

In the trucking dispatch room of the future, the only sound is of cooling fans whirring inside computer casings.  Gone are the cubicles that once honeycombed the floor, as are the chattering dispatchers who once staffed them.