Business

Initial jobless claims dropped by 19,000 last week to 366,000, the lowest level since May 2008, the Labor Department said Thursday.

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said it won’t make current hazardous materials motor carrier information available to the public until 2013, despite brokers’ complaints that its data are rife with errors and aren’t updated fast enough.

For parcel carriers, the reported surge of online shopping has been a boon for their businesses, companies said.

Transplace Inc. has announced it has been chosen to manage the truckload contracts as well as freight audit and payments of composites and coatings manufacturer Reichhold Inc.

Ceva Logistics said it has expanded its less-than-container load consolidation services by introducing 30 new services.

Alexander & Baldwin Inc., an ocean carrier and logistics and real estate firm based in Honolulu, plans to split into two separate, publicly traded companies.

The Department of Transportation’s freight transportation services index rose 4% in October from a year ago but took its first month-to-month downturn in five months, DOT said Wednesday.

The Department of Energy has altered its weekly gasoline price average to $3.286 a gallon, a 0.4-cent weekly decline, from a previously announced 1.6-cent decline.

State governments are losing out on over $10 billion in transportation revenue each year, due to states’ reluctance to raise fuel taxes, according to a study released Wednesday.