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The U.S. didn’t import any Saudi crude the week of Dec. 28 for the first time in 35 years, a reversal from just months ago when the Kingdom threatened to upend the American energy industry by unleashing a tsunami of exports into a market decimated by the pandemic.

A trade war with China and the disruptive effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have U.S. companies starting to question a decades-old strategy of shifting manufacturing operations to low-cost labor markets in China and other Asian nations.

The nation’s ports continued their breakneck pace in November as imported products arrived and unloaded at a record or near-record rate at facilities on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts.

U.S. railroads have completed installation of an automated crash-prevention system that covers 57,536 miles of freight and passenger tracks ahead of an end-of-year deadline that was previously extended, the Federal Railroad Administration announced Dec. 29.

The trucking industry stands poised for a solid start in 2021, building on an unprecedented 2020 during which the U.S. economy relied heavily on truckers amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Robotics company Nuro announced Dec. 23 that it has acquired Ike Robotics Inc., which builds automated trucking technology.

Commercial U.S. drone flights are set to receive a huge boost as soon as the week starting Dec. 28 with requirements that most of the devices must transmit a radio beacon with a digital license plate.

The trucking industry’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has brought with it a boost in public perception that will endure for years to come, American Trucking Associations President Chris Spear told Transport Topics.

The final resting places of 1.7 million American veterans were adorned with holiday wreaths this year as organizers of the annual Wreaths Across America Day worked to ensure the nation’s fallen received this honor despite challenges presented by the pandemic.

Hundreds of stranded truck drivers hoped to get the green light to leave Britain on Dec. 22 as the country found itself increasingly isolated and its trade bottled up, cut off by neighbors afraid of a new strain of the coronavirus circulating in England.