Business

Fleets are becoming more optimistic about a trucking recovery in the next 12 months, but carriers said the current market still is plagued by freight rates that are scraping the bottom.

A House cap-and-trade energy bill would “add another layer of volatility” to the already erratic price of diesel fuel that could jeopardize the economic viability of trucking companies, Tommy Hodges, first vice chairman of American Trucking Associations, said last week.

A coalition of industry groups including American Trucking Associations petitioned congressional leaders to pass legislation to rein in “excessive speculation and opaque trading activity” in oil markets.

The Teamsters union, which already has agreed to pay cuts for workers it represents at YRC Worldwide Inc., said it is considering whether to reopen its labor contract to help the less-than-truckload carrier conserve cash.

WASHINGTON — American Trucking Associations has called on Congress and the Department of Transportation to back an 18-point plan to reduce truck-involved crashes, with a particular emphasis on driver behavior.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Freightliner dealer TAG Truck Center held an open house here for customers earlier this month to demonstrate a 2010 tractor that uses selective catalytic reduction and answer questions about the emission technology Freightliner will use to meet tougher emission standards.

The trucking industry lost 8,100 jobs in May, the lowest total in eight months and roughly half the number that were laid off in April, the Labor Department reported.

Federal funds to stimulate highway projects are moving in fits and starts through the bureaucratic funding pipeline, delivering new work for some fleets while others get no benefit from the $26.7 billion economic recovery effort.

Truck and engine manufacturer Navistar Inc. last week leveled new allegations against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, accusing the federal regulator of privately and illegally giving its competitors the green light to deploy a selective catalyst reduction emission control technology that could be implemented only with an “illegal relaxation” of EPA’s 2010 nitrogen oxide emission standard.

Trucking industry groups closed ranks in support of Anne Ferro to head the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, after the Teamsters union and a handful of advocacy groups said they opposed her nomination.