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California environmental regulators said they will soon decide how to distribute early grants totaling $25 million for truck retrofits and replacements to help reduce diesel emissions at the state’s ports and intermodal facilities.

While politicians and pollsters count up votes and delegates in the long, slow march to the presidential election this November, trucking industry officials said the upcoming change in power clouds the industry’s outlook for 2009 and beyond.

NASSAU, Bahamas — Leaders of the Truckload Carriers Association said their members have seen no improvement in the thin freight market, despite reports that tonnage has increased in the past three months, and that their other great worry was sharply rising fuel prices.

Retail diesel prices jumped another 10.6 cents a gallon last week to a new record national average of $3.658; diesel has now risen 37.8 cents a gallon over the past three weeks.

The Department of Transportation reminds that Daylight Saving Time will begin this Sunday, March 9, with clocks being set ahead one hour for most Americans.

Logistics and delivery firm Dynamex Inc. said its second-quarter net income was $3.4 million, or 33 cents a share, compared with $3.7 million, or 35 cents, a year earlier.

Two Idaho state senators want to raise an additional $57 million per year — largely from out-of-state truckers — to build and repair state roads, the Associated Press reported.

The economy’s service sector contracted in February but improved from January, the Institute for Supply Management said Wednesday.

Factory orders fell 2.5% in January, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.