Business

Ryder System said Eagle Distributing in Louisiana signed a deal to lease 23 compressed natural gas tractors.

Interestingly, regardless of company size or type of operation, trucking companies share common failure points — activities or programs they lack that have a negative effect on profitability.

The word out of the Truckload Carriers Association annual meeting last week is that freight capacity is already beginning to look pinched, even as the number of people applying for driver jobs is falling sharply.

Fleets ordered 23,300 Class 8 trucks in North America during February, 4.2% more than they had a year earlier, ending a string of 13 straight year-over-year declines, according to ACT Research.

Building roads with harder surfaces could save more than $15 billion in annual fuel costs in the United States, according to a new study by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

LAS VEGAS — Rebecca Brewster, president and chief operating officer of the American Transportation Research Institute, was recognized here with the 2013 Influential Woman in Trucking Award.

Global truck sales should expand by 4.3% this year over the 2012 level, boosted by medium-duty models and nations with developing economies, according to a report from consulting firm Frost & Sullivan.

LAS VEGAS — Simultaneous improvement in freight demand and a sharp shrinkage in driver candidates is squeezing truck capacity and ratcheting up pressure to raise rates now, ahead of expected productivity losses from upcoming hours-of-service rule changes, according to several fleet executives.

Navistar International Corp. announced last week it narrowed its loss during its first fiscal quarter and has chosen Troy Clarke, its current president and chief operating officer, to take over as CEO on April 15.

Sales of used Class 8 vehicles slipped 3.1% in January from the same month last year as limited inventories and economic concerns put a damper on purchases, ACT Research reported.