Government

California’s transport refrigeration unit rule illegally imposes a national requirement on all motor carriers that enter the state, attorneys for American Trucking Associations and the Truckload Carriers Association told a federal appeals court.

Some 10,000 inspectors will be deployed across Canada, Mexico and the United States June 2-4 as part of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s annual Roadcheck event.

Canada-based transportation firm Trimac Income Fund said it lost C$700,000 in the first quarter, or 5 cents per unit, compared with a profit of C$600,000, or 2 cents, a year ago.

SAN DIEGO — A “perfect storm” of a nose-diving economy, high fuel prices and governmental missteps have all combined to ravage the trucking industry and the companies that supply its equipment, according to Jim Hebe, senior vice president of North American sales for Navistar Inc.

Details of the Environmental Protection Agency’s record $10.5 billion fiscal 2010 budget proposal — a 37% increase — quickly set off a partisan debate in Congress last week over the agency’s plans to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

The average price of retail gasoline soared last week, jumping 16.2 cents a gallon to a U.S. average of $2.24, leapfrogging diesel, which rose 3.1 cents to $2.216. Gasoline prices exceeded diesel for the first time in nearly two years.

Intermodal freight volume declined 16% in the first quarter of 2009 from a year earlier, in part because of stiffer truck competition for trailer shipments, the Intermodal Association of North America reported.

The debate over future surface transportation policy is likely to be directed by Congress, rather than the Obama administration, several industry lobbyists said following the recent release of nu-merous documents.

BOSTON — Volvo Trucks joined the argument over allowing longer, heavier trucks on U.S. highways, saying Congress should allow them on the interstate system to relieve congestion, increase productivity, conserve fuel and cut greenhouse gas emissions.