Business

Heavy-duty U.S. truck sales leaped 41.1% in April, compared with the same month in 2010, marking the 16th straight month of expansion, and outpacing the in-dustry’s 35.9% growth for the first four months of this year.

The Obama administration last week officially distanced itself from any talk of instituting a national tax based on the number of miles vehicles travel, saying it is not considering such a levy on American drivers.

Nearly two years after Maersk Line, the world’s largest ocean carrier, shook up the system for delivering freight containers from U.S. ports by requiring drayage truckers for the first time to pay rental fees for chassis, three trade groups are trying to foster an orderly transition to a new intermodal reality.

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officials have postponed the July 17 effective date for a controversial regulation requiring that motor carriers and exporters report even small amounts of residual chemicals left inside cargo tank containers when returning from deliveries in Canada and Mexico.

The average price for a gallon of U.S. retail diesel declined last week for only the third time this year, dipping 2 cents to $4.104, the Department of Energy reported.

Intermodal traffic volume rose 9% in the first quarter, the fifth straight year-over-year increase, the Intermodal Association of North America said Friday.

Express-1 Expedited Solutions said its first-quarter profit climbed 34% to $1.1 million, or 3 cents per share, from $834,000, or 3 cents, a year ago.

Consumer confidence improved in May, according to the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index released Friday.