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, Safety

Rail, Intermodal Traffic Fall

Rail carload and intermodal traffic fell for last the first week of 2008 compared with the same week last year, the Association of American Railroads said.

January 11, 2008
Government, Business, Safety

FedEx Says Its Drivers Are Classified Correctly

FedEx Corp. Chief Executive Frederick Smith he is confident the company’s FedEx Ground unit drivers are correctly classified and that the division remains “fundamentally strong” in the face of adverse court rulings.

January 10, 2008
Business, Government

Fed Chairman Says Rate Cut Likely

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke said the Fed would cut interest rates as needed to prevent housing and credit problems from plunging the country into a recession, the Associated Press reported.

January 10, 2008
Business

Con-way Rebrands CFI Truckload Unit

Con-way Inc. said Thursday it changed the name of its truckload operating unit Contract Freighters Inc. to Con-way Truckload.

January 10, 2008
Business, Government

Wholesale Inventories Rise 0.6%

Wholesale inventories rose 0.6% in November, while sales jumped 2.2%, the Commerce Department said Thursday.

January 10, 2008
Business

Jobless Claims Fall by 15,000

Initial jobless claims fell by 15,000 for the week ended Saturday to 322,000, a two-month low, the Labor Department said Thursday.

January 10, 2008
Government, Business, Safety

I-4 Closed in Florida Following Pileup

A 15-mile stretch of Interstate 4 in central Florida remained closed early Thursday after a 70-vehicle crash Wednesday caused by fog and smoke from a brush fire, the Associated Press reported.

January 10, 2008
Business

Panel May Call for 40-Cent Gas-Tax Increase

A panel created to recommend ways to fund road construction plans to propose that federal gasoline taxes rise by as much as 40 cents a gallon over five years, Bloomberg reported.

January 9, 2008
Business, Safety, Government

DOT Freight Index Gains 1.8%

The Department of Transportation’s freight transportation services index for November rose 1.8% from a year earlier, DOT said Wednesday.

January 9, 2008
Government, Business, Safety

Year in Review: Hours Battle Continued in ’07 as Adversaries Went to Court

The eyes of the trucking industry were firmly fixed on Washington for much of 2007, first watching a federal court deliberate over the fate of the hours-of-service rule, then looking to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to see how it would address the court’s ruling.

January 9, 2008