Meritor Wabco Vehicle Control Systems recently introduced several new safety products, including a forward-looking lane-departure warning system and a roll-stability trailer system.

Supply chain technology firm Intermec Inc. reported a fourth-quarter loss of $21.6 million, or 36 cents per share, compared to a profit of $7.9 million, or 13 cents, a year ago.

There were almost 20 times as many transportation applications available for mobile devices in 2011 as there were the year before, technology experts said.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said last week it will conduct research surveys of motor carriers, truckers and technology vendors in an attempt to meet a court requirement that electronic onboard recorders are not used to harass truck drivers.

Federal regulators said they plan to issue proposed rules this year covering stability control systems and speed limiters on heavy trucks, as well as establishing a national drug and alcohol clearinghouse for commercial drivers.

Green Energy Oilfield Services said it will take delivery of 60 Peterbilt 388 liquefied natural gas-powered trucks in April.

Smith Electric Vehicles Corp., a manufacturer of all-electric commercial vehicles, said it has signed a letter of intent with Wanxiang Group, a maker and supplier of automotive parts, to develop electric commercial vehicles for multiple industries in China.

Brenntag North America, a distributor of diesel exhaust fluid, said it opened a bulk rail transfer terminal in Leduc, Alberta, its fourth in Canada.

Fleet maintenance directors and their suppliers will return to Tampa, Fla., this week to discuss ever more complicated techniques for eking out new slender margins of efficiency to keep the nation’s trucks rolling down highways longer and more smoothly.

With a federal mandate on the use of electronic onboard recorders looming over the trucking industry, U.S. carriers may be following a regulatory course similar to one that their European counterparts have been dealing with for several years.