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Beginning Jan. 1, officials at the Southern California sister ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will face yet another challenge as they begin the second phase of their clean trucks plans: fewer trucks.

Trucking fleets focused on survival in 2009 as freight haulers battled a widespread economic downturn and confronted the prospect of significant new safety and environmental regulations from the Obama administration.

Roadrunner Transportation Services Holdings Inc. said it bought less-than-truckload carrier Bullet Freight Systems Inc. on Dec. 14 to expand its services in the western United States.

WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said work on a regulation that would ban texting by commercial drivers will be finished in the near future.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has begun enforcing its New Entrant Safety Assurance Process rule, requiring stricter safety standards for newly registered truck and bus companies.

WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said the department was working to complete its work on a regulation to ban texting by commercial drivers, and that it would be finished “sooner rather than later.”

Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) will introduce a long-awaited rail bill on Dec. 15 that expands the Surface Transportation Board and adds several provisions that could give shippers more choices of rail carriers, committee officials said.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last week declared that greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles and industrial facilities are a danger to human health, a first step the agency must take along the path to regulations limiting the levels of combustion by-products from tailpipes.