A U.S. watchdog office urged Congress to empower regulators to extend a Dec. 31 deadline for freight and passenger railroads to adopt new safety technology that could prevent major derailments and other deadly crashes.

XPO Logistics’ dramatic bid to snatch up trucking capacity by acquiring Con-way Inc. for $3 billion could spawn similar acquisitions by non-asset-based companies, forcing rival less-than-truckload carriers to reassess their strategy and step up their game, LTL leaders said.

Norfolk Southern Corp. announced it would restructure its truck/rail business known as Triple Crown Services, or TCS, and cut costs by moving to convert most of that unit’s intermodal freight to container equipment.

Schneider has named Mark Rourke executive vice president and chief operating officer for the Green Bay, Wisconsin-based trucking and logistics service provider.

Hub Group named Donald Maltby as president and chief operating officer, replacing Mark Yeager, who resigned on Aug. 8.

Weekly U.S. intermodal rail traffic dropped 13.3% from the same period last year, the Association of American Railroads reported.

The Consumers United for Rail Equity trade group, which has been lobbying for changes in rail pricing and service for more than three decades, has been renamed the Freight Rail Customer Alliance in an effort to broaden its membership and focus.

Schneider added intermodal service between the Southeast and Montreal over a more direct route.