HOUSTON — During the second half of 2007, when the U.S. economy and stock market were at their respective peaks, a colleague of James Crane said he was — for a brief while — bitter and unhappy. But as gross domestic product and the value of stocks, housing and other assets fell dramatically, the smile returned to Crane’s face as he realized the comfort of cash — hundreds of millions of dollars of it.

Get a group of truckers together anywhere in this country, and Minnesota’s “Fatigued Driving Evaluation Checklist” is bound to come up. The 75-item list gained national prominence when the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association sued the Minnesota State Patrol in federal court in an attempt to stop its use.

Third-party logistics firm Carter Logistics said it has opened a new cross-dock facility in Romulus, Mich.

The Yucaipa Cos., a private equity firm, bought a 49% stake in Versacold International Corp., an operator of temperature-controlled warehouses, from Icelandic shipping and logistics company Hf. Eimskipafelag Islands, or Eimskip.

CEVA Logistics has appointed Matthew Ryan its first chief operating officer, the company announced on July 2. He will manage the company’s global operations team and be responsible for global procurement, CEVA said.

Logistics firm Expeditors International of Washington said Monday its second-quarter earnings will likely be 24 cents to 26 cents per share, down from 32 cents a year ago.

At a time when good news in the trucking industry is hard to come by, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration served up a generous helping of it last week when it said that truck-related highway fatalities plummeted 12% last year.

WASHINGTON — Debbie Hersman, President Obama’s choice to lead the National Transportation Safety Board, told a Senate committee that other transportation agencies should voluntarily adopt the board’s recommendations, and if they don’t, Congress should order them to.