Business

Increasing freight hauling demand and possible changes in hours-of-service rules and vehicle weight limits are forcing the largest private fleets in the United States and Canada to focus more attention on the availability of drivers and the cost of transporting goods.

The Obama administration last week issued fuel-economy and carbon-dioxide standards for heavy-duty trucks, marking the federal government’s first foray into regulating our industry’s energy efficiency, and we must say, it was an enlightened step.

Trucking stocks have suffered a thrashing this month from in­vestors as the overall stock market bounced up and down, pressured by worries about European debt, the United States’ debt downgrade and the global economy, but several analysts expressed confidence in the industry.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Despite being some of the nation’s top professional drivers, competitors at the 2011 National Truck Driving Championships said it was only natural to be nervous.

Kraft Foods said a plan to split the Northfield, Ill.-based company into two separate businesses — a global snack foods business with revenue of about $32 billion and a North American grocery distribution business with revenue of about $16 billion — will lead to new distribution strategies for each company.

Teamsters union members working in the U.S. car-haul industry approved a new contract that will last more than four years, the union said from its national headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The Virginia Trucking Association recently warned carriers to read the fine print when they agree to participate in federally funded university studies, claiming that researchers used motor carrier data from a 2009 distracted-driving study in a subsequent study to support a pending hours-of-service rule.

The average price of a gallon of U.S. diesel slid 4 cents to $3.897 last week, the Department of Energy reported, while crude oil declined along with equity markets.

Express-1 Expedited Solutions, a provider of brokerage and forwarding services, said it has scheduled a Sept. 1 shareholders’ meeting to approve a takeover by Jacobs Private Equity, a firm controlled by investor Bradley Jacobs.