Business

About Business News...

Transport Topics business coverage focuses on the financial, economic, and commercial aspects of the modern freight business. Looking at both the microeconomic and macroeconomic forces shaping bottom lines, the news in this category includes labor news, jobs reports, tonnage and sales indicators, operations analysis, money and banking, mergers, acquisitions, e-commerce, bankruptcy, insurance issues, and more.

Business

Initial Jobless Claims Fall to 10-Month Low

Initial jobless claims fell by 12,000 last week to 502,000, the Labor Department said Thursday.

November 12, 2009
Business

Oil Rises to Near $80 a Barrel

Oil rose slightly Wednesday but held below $80 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg reported.

November 11, 2009
Business

Trailer Bridge’s Third-Quarter Income Improves

Trailer Bridge Inc.’s third -quarter profit rose to $1.7 million, or 14 cents per share, from $34,000, or zero cents, a year ago.

November 11, 2009
Business

Oshkosh Gets $438 Million Contract for 1,000 Trucks

Oshkosh Corp. won a $438 million contract from the U.S. military for an additional 1,000 blast-proof trucks, giving the company contracts to build 6,219 of the vehicles destined for U.S. troops in Afghanistan, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

November 11, 2009
Government, Business, Safety

ATA Challenging D.C. Truck Rules

American Trucking Associations and two state ATA affiliates, Maryland and Virginia, are taking issue with the District of Columbia’s new thrust on truck lengths and credential requirements.

November 10, 2009
Government, Business, Safety

House Panel to Hold Wetlines Hearing Monday in Baltimore

The chairwoman of a House subcommittee has scheduled a field hearing Monday in Baltimore on a controversial House bill that would prohibit the transportation of flammable liquids in unprotected product piping on both existing and newly-manufactured cargo tank trucks.

November 10, 2009
Government, Business, Logistics

Vermont-New York Bridge Will Not Reopen

Officials in Vermont and New York have decided the Crown Point Bridge connecting the two states at the southern tip of Lake Champlain is too badly deteriorated to repair.

November 10, 2009
Government, Business, Safety

IRS Drops $319 Million Levy over FedEx Owner-Operators

FedEx Corp. said an Internal Revenue Service audit team has proposed that no assessment of federal employment taxes be made against the company’s ground parcel unit for 2002, an important step in FedEx’s continuing legal battle over whether some of its workers are independent contractors or employees.

November 10, 2009
Business, Fuel

Diesel to Average Near $3 a Gallon in 2010, DOE Says

Retail diesel will average $2.79 in the fourth quarter and rise 50 cents from this year’s projected average to nearly $3 a gallon next year, the Department of Energy said.

November 10, 2009
Government, Fuel, Business

Panel OKs Cap-and-Trade Bill, Despite Republican Boycott

Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee last week approved a cap-and-trade bill that opponents said would cause a spike in the cost of diesel fuel.

November 10, 2009