°®¶¹´«Ã½

U.S. manufacturing activity contracted at the fastest pace in 28 years in December, the Institute for Supply Management said.

APM Terminals Virginia will discontinue use of company identification cards at its Portsmouth, Va., facility and rely solely on the federal Transportation Workers Identification Credential, or TWIC, a port executive said.

We have to stop going to California; that’s the bottom line. First, they (the ports) put emission standards on who could go into the ports in the Los Angeles area.

As if skyrocketing fuel prices in 2008 were not enough, American trucking companies are now in the midst of the worst recession since the early 1980s.

Transport Topics Online will be closed through Friday for the New Year’s holiday. Please check back on Monday, Jan. 5, for the latest trucking and freight transportation news.

The U.S. diesel average fell a combined 9.5 cents over the final two weeks of 2008 to $2.327 a gallon, ending the year at its lowest level since June 2005, the Department of Energy reported.

THOMASVILLE, N.C. — But for the vagaries of history, Earl Congdon’s family business could have been Florida motels rather than less-than-truckload transportation.

Trucking’s difficulties are expected to continue this year, as many carriers struggle for survival while freight volumes fall, financial market turmoil continues and a new political landscape takes shape.

With fuel prices going down, including diesel, truckers are still shutting down and still saying they aren’t making money — proving my own view that the problem is other than fuel prices.

Cargo traffic at ports in China declined for the first time in at least seven years last month, Bloomberg reported.