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The Obama administration is continuing to work on a plan to restart cross-border trucking between the United States and Mexico, even as the two countries battle the spread of “swine flu.”

The refrigerated sector of the trucking industry has been the only healthy activity for fleets in the current recession. Refrigerated truckload shipments grew slightly from last year, but dry vans, tankers and flatbeds all dropped substantially, industry executives and American Trucking Associations said.

MISSISSAUGA, Ontario — ArvinMeritor Inc. officially opened its new remanufacturing facility here for its Mascot Truck Parts division, the latest development in the company’s expanding presence in this niche of the truck equipment business.

WASHINGTON — With the expiration of the current highway authorization just five months away, leaders in the House and Senate said they were preparing to draft its replacement with an eye on major structural changes.

Corporate-owned truck fleets are facing growing pressure to justify their in-house freight operations as manufacturers and retailers target transportation expenses in response to the sharp nationwide downturn in sales.

California environmental regulators have approved a new standard that will require a 10% reduction in the carbon content of transportation fuels by 2020 and encourage a transition to nonpetroleum-based fuels.

A federal judge last week issued a preliminary injunction blocking many of the provisions in the clean trucks plans of the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, including the controversial ban on independent drayage owner-operators at Los Angeles.

U.S. consumer confidence improved in April to the highest level since late last year, according to the Reuters/University of Michigan’s monthly consumer sentiment index released Friday.

Manufacturing in the U.S. improved last month but still showed overall contraction, the Institute for Supply Management said Friday.