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MAN AG, Europe’s third-largest truckmaker, said its fourth-quarter profit rose 33% as vehicle deliveries surged in the booming Eastern European economies such as Poland and Russia, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

Factory orders rose for a fourth consecutive month in December, posting a 2.3% increase over the previous month, the Commerce Department said Monday.

Events in the year just ended could foreshadow changes in the way trucking is priced. While some developments involved new trucking technology, others have resulted from legal, legislative and regulatory developments.

The Ohio State Patrol wants higher fines for trucks carrying overweight loads, the Associated Press reported Monday.

Crude oil prices fell for a third trading day in pre-market trading Monday, with futures falling almost $1 to $88.07 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg reported.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s fiscal year 2009 budget request includes $49.2 million in clean diesel grants, EPA said Monday following the release of President Bush’s budget.

The commission in charge of creating congestion-fee plan for New York City voted Thursday to approve a scaled-down version of an original proposal, but the plan would still charge cars and most trucks fees to enter the central part of Manhattan, the Associated Press reported.

Truck buyers for some of the nation’s largest fleets are already contemplating their choices for the January 2010 generation of heavy-duty truck engines. Their challenge is matching the original equipment manufacturers they like with one of the two main technologies upon which the OEMs will rely.