Business

The trucking industry stands poised for a solid start in 2021, building on an unprecedented 2020 during which the U.S. economy relied heavily on truckers amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The House on Dec. 28 passed a bill replacing the $600 stimulus checks in the newly enacted virus relief bill with $2,000 payments, as Democrats and moderate Republicans voted in favor of a proposal backed by President Donald Trump.

The U.S. average retail price of diesel rose 1.6 cents to $2.635 a gallon and notched a new nine-month high after first reaching that peak a week earlier, the Energy Information Administration reported Dec. 28. The average price of diesel was $2.659 on March 23.

A brief rally in crude oil deflated Dec. 28 as investors ignored a broader market surge that pushed equities to an all-time high and focused instead on looming new supply from OPEC+.

Robotics company Nuro announced Dec. 23 that it has acquired Ike Robotics Inc., which builds automated trucking technology.

FedEx Corp. announced Dec. 28 that it has completed its acquisition of ShopRunner, marking an expansion of the company’s e-commerce footprint.

The used truck market in November generated more demand and a higher average price for a Class 8 compared with a year earlier, ACT Research reported.

President Donald Trump on Dec. 27 signed a COVID-19 relief package that allots $10 billion for highway infrastructure programs.

The House is set to vote Dec. 28 to replace the $600 stimulus payments in the newly enacted pandemic relief law with the $2,000 President Donald Trump demanded — a Democratic-led effort that is politically fraught for congressional Republicans and unlikely to become law.

Commercial U.S. drone flights are set to receive a huge boost as soon as the week starting Dec. 28 with requirements that most of the devices must transmit a radio beacon with a digital license plate.