Government

WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood last week issued an order immediately forbidding commercial drivers from texting on handheld mobile devices and instituting steep fines for violators.

In his first State of the Union address, President Obama called on Congress to pass legislation to create jobs through infrastructure spending and tax cuts, but his proposed freeze in nondefense spending starting in 2011 could complicate the passage of a new highway bill, observers said last week.

Within hours of the devastating Haitian earthquake, the president of TEC Equipment Inc., a chain of West Coast truck dealerships, received an e-mail from an employee asking, “What are we doing about Haiti?”

U.S. factory shipments of commercial trailers plunged 44% in 2009 from the previous year to 80,415 units, the lowest total since 1975, as dry van shipments fell to the lowest level since 1961, ACT Research Co. reported.

The U.S. retail diesel average price fell 3.7 cents a gallon to $2.833 last week, the largest one-week decline since July, the Department of Energy reported.

The U.S. economy expanded at a 5.7% annual rate in the fourth quarter of last year, the fastest pace since the third quarter of 2003, the Commerce Department said Friday.

A winter storm heading eastward across Tennessee into the Carolinas Friday is causing havoc on roads due to ice and snow, news services reported.

The decline in surface transportation trade among the United States, Canada and Mexico slowed in November from a year ago compared with October figures, the Department of Transportation said Thursday.

Arkansas Best Corp. said Thursday it lost $88.7 million, or $3.54 per share, in the fourth quarter, compared with a loss of $11 million, or 44 cents, a year earlier.