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For 18 years, regulators have been wrestling with a congressional mandate to issue a rule prohibiting trucks from proceeding into railroad crossings unless there is adequate space on the other side to avoid getting trapped on the tracks.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Permanent repair kits for defective ATR-6 traction-relay brake valves are moving to truck makers, executives of Bendix Commercial Vehicle System said.

Gene Scoggins, president of the NationaLease truck-leasing organization, is retiring after 37 years in the transportation industry.

Although today’s handheld devices continue to become smaller, tougher and far more capable than their clunky, limited-application predecessors, manufacturers and officials at the freight companies that rely on them said the next technological developments will be influenced by what’s happening in the consumer market.

Most truck makers said they will make important announcements of new products this year at the Mid-America Trucking Show, including Peterbilt Motors Co.’s introduction of a new model.

Truck tonnage rose 3.6% in January, extending a string of year-over-year growth into a fourth year and buoying optimism that steady improvement in the consumer and manufacturing sectors will continue to lift the freight industry.

TransForce Inc.’s fourth-quarter net income rose to C$41.7 million, or 41 cents a share, from C$34.8 million, or 36 cents, a year earlier, the Montreal-based trucking and logistics company said Wednesday.

Class 8 tractors have long been the standard for U.S. for-hire carriers, yet for certain service lines, even the most venerable of heavy-duty fleets are now buying Class 6 and 7 trucks and sometimes even smaller cargo vans.