Business

In the aftermath of Donald Trump’s win, trucking and transportation industry executives saw the president-elect’s bullish interest in modernizing the country’s infrastructure as a glass-half-full.

Voters in Illinois and New Jersey approved lockboxes for transportation funding while those in Washington State rejected what would have been the nation’s first statewide carbon emissions tax.

DALLAS — As emerging technologies and new business models transform the way freight moves, transportation firms will need to undergo a metamorphosis of their own to compete in this new world, executives said.

The re-election of senior Republicans on Nov. 8, solidifying the party’s control of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, is expected to help Republicans unify the divisions within their party and approve a long-term funding fix for freight infrastructure projects next year, the incumbent lawmakers and GOP leaders said.

Intermodal volumes declined in the third quarter because truck prices are lower than a year ago and that has diverted business away from railroads, the Intermodal Association of North America reported.

Advocates of heavy-duty engines powered by diesel or natural gas are vying for a share of the windfall directed at nitrogen oxide mitigation in all 50 states after recent approval of the federal government’s multibillion-dollar settlement with Volkswagen AG.

Net preliminary Class 8 truck orders in October fell below 14,000, but cancellations of previous orders that were removed from the books last month complicated the picture, analysts said.