Business

Truck maker Paccar Inc. said it has received certification from the California Air Resources Board for its Paccar MX 12.9 liter engine, its first heavy-duty engine.

Software vendor TMW Systems said it unveiled Innovative IES Release 9, a new version of its green-screen dispatch and operations software.

Air and freight forwarder UTi Worldwide reported an increase in net income and revenue for its fiscal first quarter.

Oil held near $71 a barrel early Monday, following a big drop Friday, on concerns that Europe’s debt crisis could keep demand low, Bloomberg reported.

President Obama’s recent announcement that he was kicking off a major effort to improve the fuel efficiency of commercial vehicles was welcome news to the trucking industry.

Reading the May 24 “Opinion” column on how hard it would be for the smaller freight brokers to exist with a higher bond, my heart goes out to them, but my sympathies run with the trucking companies that use these brokers, small or large.

What a difference a year makes: Just one year ago, trucking trade publications were reporting on truckload rates plummeting 27% over the previous year, trucking companies beating down shippers’ doors looking for business, carriers dealing with 50% to 100% excess capacity over the previous two years, and thousands of trucking companies going bankrupt.

Trucking will continue to be “an essential component” of the nation’s freight system, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told American Trucking Associations President Bill Graves, responding to Graves’ recent letter complaining of “misleading” statements about trucking by LaHood and others in DOT.

Thomas Nyhan, executive director of the Central States Pension Fund, told a Senate committee that the fund, which provides retirement benefits for a number of unionized trucking companies, will become insolvent without changes to federal law.

U.S. efforts to resolve the ongoing dispute with Mexico over cross-border trucking have stalled, rankling officials on both sides of the border.