Business

A burst of tornados struck the Dallas area last week, severely damaging trucks and trailers at a Schneider National Inc. terminal, a truck dealer’s facility and a trailer dealer’s lot.

Customers ordered a net total of 21,800 new commercial trailers in February, a 4% drop from last February, ACT Research Co. reported, but manufacturers were confident it was just a temporary lull.

A federal appeals court recently rejected nearly all of the sweeping allegations the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission made in a 2007 lawsuit that accused CRST Van Expedited Inc. of being responsible for “severe and pervasive” sexual harassment in its new-driver training program.

Retail diesel prices dipped 0.5 cent last week to $4.142 a gallon, interrupting a price advance that had raised the price of trucking’s main fuel nearly 30 cents over the previous nine weeks, the Department of Energy reported.

Baja Express Transportes, Tijuana, Mexico, has been granted authority to operate throughout the United States, the third carrier to get authority under the cross-border trucking pilot program with Mexico.

The U.S. unemployment declined to 8.2% in March — the lowest in three years — but trucking jobs fell by 1,900, the Labor Department said Friday.

Truck owners are allowed to tint the windshields and side windows of a truck’s cab, which could protect drivers from harmful sunlight, the International Window Film Association said.

Oil rose almost $2 on Thursday to finish the trading week at $103.31 a barrel, following an earlier report that jobless claims fell to the lowest level in four years, Bloomberg reported.