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Mark Zaluski was one of the lucky ones. At 3:10 p.m. on Oct. 25, his rig occupied one of only 16 truck parking spaces on the north side of a travel plaza off Interstate 94 about 40 miles north of Chicago.

The average price of retail diesel fell 1.5 cents last week to $3.41 a gallon, ending a string of five straight increases that had pushed the fuel to record levels, the Department of Energy reported.

The index of leading economic indicators fell in October, the New York-based Conference Board said Wednesday.

Performance Transportation Services, a Wayne, Mich., auto transporter, said it, along with certain subsidiaries, will file for chapter 11 bankruptcy as part of a $67 million deal to sell nearly all of its assets to Allied Systems Holdings.

Housing starts in October rose 3% to 1.229, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.

The head of the Louisiana state trucking association said that shippers and freight transporters should expect major delays after a part of Interstate 10 was closed in the wake of a natural gas fire.

John Ficker, president of the National Industrial Transportation League, will step down at the end of November, NITL said Monday.

The value of U.S. Freight Shipments to Canada and Mexico in 2006 rose to a record $866 billion from $790 billion in 2005, the Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics said Monday.

Private Equity firm Fenway Partners, New York, N.Y., said Monday it acquired Canadian transportation firm Consolidated Fastfrate.