LONG BEACH, Calif. — Students from Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo High School watched transportation leaders at the Metrans International Urban Freight Conference, which met just a few miles from the sprawling Port of Long Beach.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has extended regulatory waivers related to truckers’ allowable work time, citing continuing public health concerns over COVID-19.

SILVER SPRING, Md. — U.S. consumer confidence edged lower in May as Americans’ view of their present and future prospects dimmed in the midst of persistent inflation.

LONG BEACH, Calif. — Because of the now more than two-year-long COVID-19 pandemic, the freight industry is undergoing an accelerated rate of change.

Some supply strains in the U.S. are easing, two years after a jump in demand started emptying shelves, snarling shipping and sowing the seeds of soaring inflation.

Big retailers rushed to build up inventories last year amid soaring consumer demand and transportation bottlenecks — going so far in some cases as to rent their own cargo ships. Now, they’re trying to figure out how to sell all their stuff.

SHANGHAI — Shanghai authorities say they will take major steps June 1 toward reopening China’s largest city after a two-month COVID-19 lockdown that has set back the national economy and largely confined millions of people to their homes.

Retired U.S. Army Gen. Stephen Lyons has been appointed as the new port and supply chain envoy to a group created by the White House last June to mitigate economic problems arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The giant ports in Southern California and across the U.S. greatly lag their counterparts in Europe and other regions using digital technology to optimize operations. That was the consensus of a panel discussion at the Metrans International Urban Freight Conference.

Truck tonnage in April increased on an annual basis but declined compared with March, American Trucking Associations reported.