Business

Highway speed reduction, driver training, progressive shifting and fuel-operated heaters received the highest marks for return on investment in a recent fleet survey evaluating initiatives in the SmartWay program.

The trucking industry and its allies pushed back against modified hours-of-service rules for drivers, while federal regulators pushed ahead with safety initiatives that ranged from requiring electronic onboard recorders to ensuring that unsafe trucking companies cannot keep operating after being shut down.

Like many of the nation’s businesses, American Trucking Associations operated cautiously in 2012, said Bill Graves, the federation’s president.

Major acquisitions, the upcoming electronic onboard recorder mandate and a move toward mobility platforms were among the year’s biggest developments in trucking’s technology arena.

After a series of temporary extensions kept highway construction projects and federal transportation programs afloat for three years, Congress in June finally passed a new highway reauthorization bill.

Heavy-duty U.S. truck and engine makers appear headed for a third straight year of sales growth, although the trend may have peaked in August as volumes stumbled after that and new order rates dipped.

Trucking and transportation stocks generally appreciated at a lower rate in 2012 than did the large, broad market indexes.

A graph of diesel’s prices in 2012 resembles a roller coaster, with big surges in the spring and fall topping $4 a gallon, with each soon followed by relatively steep declines.

For labor and management, 2012 was short on contracts and long on rhetoric. During the year, the only agreement that affected trucking was between a division of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Southern California waterfront employers.

Intermodal business continued to grow in 2012, powered by the combination of truckload freight migrating to rail long hauls, expanded Eastern truck/rail options and continued reliability improvements, industry experts said.