Business

Cargo theft is on the rise, and, thanks to various reporting groups, we carriers, shippers and consignees are now able to track theft patterns and take steps to reduce our chances of being involved in such incidents.

Heavy-duty truck sales in the United States skyrocketed in October, doubling from the corresponding month last year, and with a 174.2% sales gain by Navistar Inc. leading to the industry’s greatest single-month volume since January 2007.

Onboard computers, which many drivers and fleet managers greeted with much skepticism when they were introduced, have become a popular in-cab device, according to  several users.

ATLANTA — The Transportation Intermediaries Association and the National Industrial Transportation League are nearing completion on a revised model agreement between brokers and shippers that is designed to serve as a model contract for freight transactions, TIA’s president said.

ATLANTA — Large truckload carriers U.S. Xpress Enterprises and CRST International last week said they are expanding their team-driver service offerings to tap the refrigerated truckload market for produce shipments.

The National Transportation Safety Board has refused to reconsider its investigation of a fatal 1997 accident in Yonkers, N.Y., one often cited in support of stricter wetlines regulations on tank trucks.

Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives said they would introduce a five-year highway funding bill that would be paid for by expanded domestic oil drilling.

A university sleep study cited by federal regulators in a proposed hours-of-service rule is “insufficient” to justify changing the rule’s 34-hour restart provision, according to American Trucking Associations.

ATLANTA — The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will withdraw its rule requiring motor carriers with serious hours-of-service compliance violations to install electronic logging devices June 1, 2012, Administrator Anne Ferro said last week.

U.S. retail diesel prices jumped last week, as the national average gained 10 cents a gallon to $3.987, the largest weekly increase in more than seven months, the Department of Energy reported.