Safety

Ryder System said late Monday it has completed its acquisition of Gator Leasing, privately held company based in Miami.

Transportation software firm Xata Corp. said Monday it lost $1.4 million, or 17 cents a share, in its fiscal second quarter, compared with a loss of $900,000, or 12 cents, a year ago.

I agree with Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters: Congress should continue the cross-border program between the United States and Mexico.

The New York Court of Appeals has upheld the constitutionality of a federal law, known as the Graves Amendment, that bars claims against leasing companies because of actions of equipment lessees.

The California Air Resources Board has confirmed to Transport Topics that Mack Trucks Inc., Cummins Inc. and Volvo Trucks North America have received certification that their heavy-duty engines meet California’s nitrogen oxide emission standards, providing users an exemption from the state’s five-minute idling regulation.

President Bush declared this week as “National Transportation Week” and Saturday to be “National Defense Transportation Day,” the White House said Friday.

Mexico’s principal trucking group said its members have lost more than $2 billion a year because the United States has refused to allow cross-border trucking as required by the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement and that it is seeking damages through arbitration.

American Trucking Associations launched a major initiative to meet the industry’s growing fuel-price crisis, supporting for the first time national truck fuel-economy standards.

Major suppliers of drivetrain components, brakes and suspension parts are following the lead of truck and engine makers by expanding production and distribution outside North America, while revamping existing operations to lower costs and develop new products.