Fuel

The use of heavier trucks can be an effective way for the industry to reduce fuel consumption and emissions, a new study by the American Transportation Research Institute said.

Prices paid to U.S. producers jumped 1.1% in March, reflecting higher fuel and food costs, the Labor Department said Tuesday.

Nearly 90% of the biodiesel available for sale in the United States meets the established standards for quality, an improvement over past surveys but still an unacceptable situation for trucking, a new report by the Department of Energy said.

Stung by the sharp rise in diesel prices, fleet executives are pushing to find new ways to stretch their fuel dollars and recover as much of their costs as possible.

Plans by the Chinese government to close factories in and around Beijing and Shanghai this summer to reduce air pollution for the 2008 Summer Olympics could cause early or late peak seasonal surges in exports to the United States, shipping industry executives and transportation experts said.

Unfavorable economic trends and fuel prices will collaborate to propel trucking companies’ first-quarter earnings below year-ago levels and will lead to a shrinkage of the fleet in the truckload sector, industry analysts said.

As I understand the new driver-training rules, they indicate that a company cannot hire drivers if that company has a school for training those drivers. This is in conflict with every training institution in the country — if not the world.