Business

Aggressive fuel economy research and development funded by the federal government will reduce fuel consumption of long-haul trucks by 30%, Energy Secretary Steven Chu told a Senate committee Thursday.

Trucks as heavy as 100,000 pounds are now traveling on all interstate highways in Vermont, thanks to action last month by state legislators and Gov. Jim Douglas (R).

Gasoline’s national average price fell 1.4 cents over the past two weeks to an average $2.72 a gallon, according to the latest Lundberg Survey of fuel prices released Sunday.

The Jan. 4 Opinion piece, “Workers’ Comp and Our Aging Workforce,” has to be the most biased article I have ever read.

Usually in Washington, as elsewhere, something has to be broken, or at least underperforming, before some branch of the government moves to repair or replace it. That being the case, you might ask why the Department of Transportation is looking to tinker around with its hours-of-service rule.

When passive radio frequency identification began its rise almost a decade ago, hopes ran high that the new technology, which offers hands-free operation and doesn’t require a direct line of sight, would help to free the shipping industry from labor-intensive bar-code tracking, which often requires handheld devices to read labels and is consequently much prone to human error.

U.S. heavy-duty truck sales in December topped 10,000 units for the only month in 2009, but the grand total for the year of 94,798 units was the lowest since 1983 and 29% below the 2008 level, WardsAuto.com reported.

As the first 2010 trucks requiring diesel exhaust fluid begin to roll off production lines, executives with the nation’s truck stops said they are prepared to meet the demand.

Stronger freight demand in the waning days of 2009 is fueling expectations that publicly traded carriers will report better performance when they begin disclosing fourth-quarter results this week, industry analysts said.