Safety

The Obama administration last week issued its proposed new fuel efficiency and first-ever national greenhouse gases reduction standards for passenger cars and light trucks.

The House passed legislation last week authorizing $2.85 billion for the development of electric and hybrid technologies that can be used to create alternative-energy vehicles.

As trucking groups continue to express opposition toward the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s proposal to more than double registration fees starting in 2010, the agency said it was extending the public comment period by 10 days.

RALEIGH, N.C. — After four years of learning, technician Christopher Tate, 37, overcame the challenges of 81 competitors, 14 skills station hurdles and a four-hour written test to lay claim to the title of grand national champion of SuperTech 2009.

The House transportation committee is preparing a short-term extension of the current highway funding law, while continuing work on a long-term replacement for the legislation that expires in less than two weeks.

RALEIGH, N.C. — The federal stopping-distance rule announced in late July will generate lots of technical choices for truck buyers, but manufacturing executives told fleet managers here the engineering changes should be minimally disruptive.

The Maine Department of Transportation has installed cameras and scales in an attempt to catch weight violations in trucks that avoid a weigh station on Interstate 95, the Portsmouth (N.H.) Herald reported Friday.

Those familiar with accident event recorders know this technology offers many valuable benefits for transportation operations. AERs, which record both video and audio when a driving incident occurs, can help to improve driver performance, reduce accidents and save lives. The technology also offers other significant, but less publicized, advantages such as decreased expenses and enhanced driver/management relationships.