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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.

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.

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

Oil closed the trading day Wednesday near $51 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange following an Energy Department report that showed gasoline inventories declined last week, Bloomberg reported.

Canadian transportation firm Mullen Group Income Fund said its first-quarter profit dropped 37.8% to C$31 million or 38 cents per unit, from C$49.8 million, or 62 cents per unit, a year ago.

Daimler AG said Tuesday it lost $1.68 billion in the first quarter, compared with a profit of $1.73 billion a year ago, the Associated Press reported.