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Southern California port officials and state environmental regulators continued pressing their campaign to reduce heavy-truck diesel emissions, approving several controversial measures during 2008 that some truckers said will lead to severe economic hardships.

Ryder System said Tuesday it has completed its acquisition of a Canadian logistics firm with operations in China.

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The Department of Transportation and the I-95 corridor coalition signed an agreement earlier this month to help relieve congestion on Interstate 95.

A coalition of advocacy and labor groups last week again challenged the revised driver hours-of-service rule, asking the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to reconsider provisions in the rule that allow truckers to drive 11 hours in a workday and reset their weekly hour limit by taking 34 hours off.

Truckload driver turnover rates fell to the lowest levels since American Trucking Associations began collecting the data in 1995, as trucking companies cut jobs and trimmed the size of their fleets in the face of sharply falling freight-hauling demand in the third quarter.

Diesel engine maker Cummins Inc.’s emissions subsidiary will lay off about 100 workers at a Wisconsin plant, effective immediately, because of the slumping North American truck market, the company said.

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.