°®¶¹´«Ã½

President Obama last week nominated Victor Mendez, former head of the Arizona Department of Transportation, to lead the Federal Highway Administration and Charles Hurley, a longtime safety advocate, to run the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

An ad hoc coalition including the National Pork Producers Council and 140 other business, manufacturing and agricultural organizations, sent a letter Tuesday to President Obama urging him to quickly resolve a dispute with Mexico over allowing its trucks to transport goods into the United States.

Freight brokers and logistics providers saw profit margins decrease 5% in 2008 compared to the previous year due to volatile market conditions, a survey by transportation technology company TransCore shows.

U.S. retail diesel prices jumped sharply last week, a second straight bump that raised the national average a two-week total of 20.4 cents a gallon, or about 10%, as gasoline also rose, topping the $2 a gallon mark for the first time since November, according to the Department of Energy.

Less-than-truckload carrier Con-way Freight will take over the final leg of express shipments from Europe under a new partnership with Dutch transportation and logistics firm TNT.

The Canadian Trucking Alliance told a government panel Monday it supports an amendment to the country’s Customs Act that would take some responsibility for shipments entering Canada from carriers and put it on other parties in the supply chain.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — China International Marine Containers introduced the first trailer it is marketing in the United States under its own name, a refrigerated unit it said contains a proprietary insulation system that will eliminate the 3% to 7% in condensation weight that typical reefers build up in a year.

Rising oil prices and growing distillate demand pushed the U.S. national diesel average 7.3 cents higher to $2.09 last week, the first increase in more than two months, the Department of Energy reported.

A House bill would freeze the truck size and weight limits of 53 feet for trailers and 80,000 pounds for the entire national highway system.