Business

WASHINGTON — The chairman of a key House subcommittee that oversees highways said a tax on the number of miles a vehicle travels is the fairest way to raise the money needed to support the nation’s transportation infrastructure.

U.S. trailer manufacturers booked 20,357 new orders in January, which was down 20.1% from a year earlier but enough to boost manufacturers’ backlogs, ACT Research reported.

Growth in the nation’s heavy-duty truck fleet firmed in the fourth quarter and at the same time many of the oldest trucks — those made before 2000 — were purged, according to a report from R.L. Polk & Co.

When it comes to what relocation companies want in the vehicles they use to move household goods and similar items, fleet managers said two words come to mind — cube, as in cubic feet, and customization.

LOS CABOS, Mexico — The chief salesman for North America’s largest truck manufacturer said 2013 thus far has been “pretty much exactly what we predicted” when company officials created their business projections last year.

As package giants UPS Inc. and FedEx Corp. jockey for a new billion-dollar U.S. Postal Service airmail contract, other carriers said they do not expect major changes if the agency’s plan to cut Saturday mail deliveries becomes reality.

North America’s heavy-duty truck makers and many major suppliers hope to reignite slumping heavy-duty sales when the Mid-America Trucking Show begins later this month at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville.

Retail diesel prices edged up 0.2 cent last week to $4.159 a gallon, reaching the highest level ever recorded in the month of February, according to the Department of Energy.