Business

The four-year, $302 billion highway bill Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx sent Congress on April 29 proposes reforms to certain corporate taxes as a way to bolster a dwindling federal highway account that helps states fund large-scale infrastructure projects.

Truck maker Paccar Inc. and the truck divisions of Daimler AG and Volvo AB reported improved first-quarter results as economic growth and replacement demand continued to drive purchases in North America.

Trailer orders surged 71.6% in March from a year earlier as freight growth, tight capacity and improving carrier profits continued to drive demand for new equipment, ACT Research reported.

Large fleets with massive stocks of tires to maintain need a lot of tools. But the most important tool — data — is often missing, fleet managers and tire makers said.

Several business trade groups asked Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker to help persuade the National Conference on Weights and Measures to certify the diesel-gallon equivalent as the official measurement for compressed and liquefied natural gas when used as truck fuel.

Better business conditions for freight haulers is boosting demand for credit as well as opening the door to increased competition among financial service providers, trucking industry financiers said.

Transportation leaders and infrastructure advocates will again call on Congress to implement long-term financing structures, such as raising the federal fuel tax, to rehabilitate roads and bridges around the country.

Natural gas continues to grow steadily as an alternative transportation fuel as more trucking companies adopt use of compressed and liquefied natural gas.

WASHINGTON — Fleet executives told a National Research Council committee of their efforts to save on fuel consumption and what they would recommend to federal agencies that are writing the next rule on greenhouse-gas emissions.

Several more publicly traded fleets released quarterly earnings that were punished by winter weather, joining carriers that earlier reported results that were better and worse from the effect of storms and extreme cold.