The multibillion-dollar merger between Knight Transportation Inc. and Swift Transportation received a speedy federal antitrust approval May 1, clearing the way for shareholders to vote on the proposed transaction to form the largest truckload carrier in the United States.

First-quarter expenses rose faster than revenue for Expeditors International of Washington, so the freight forwarder remained profitable but at a lower level than a year ago.

Many trucking and third-party logistics companies still write checks to pay their invoices, but efforts are underway to transition from pen and paper to point-and-click e-payments. If successful, it would shift decades-old business patterns ingrained in the industry.

All publicly traded freight railroads reported higher profits in the first quarter, led by a strong rebound in coal transportation from the doldrums of recent years and continued improvement in the intermodal sector.

Allen Lund Co. has formed a joint venture with Santos International called TransKool Solutions, which will operate a temperature-controlled warehouse in McAllen, Texas, and offer brokerage services to transport produce and other refrigerated goods from Mexico to the United States and Canada.

Profits at Universal Logistics Holdings Inc. fell 42% year-over-year despite 9.2% growth in revenue during the same period, which the company acknowledged was due to problems with a few of its large value-added programs.

Union Pacific’s profits increased 9.5% to $1.07 billion dollars, or $1.32 per share, after strong results on a year-over-year basis in the coal, agricultural and intermodal transportation.

Consumer confidence rebounded last week as Americans became the most upbeat about the economy since 2001, the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index figures showed April 27.