Safety

Economic activity increased modestly from of mid-November through early January, although demand for transportation services was generally weak, the Federal Reserve said.

Transport Topics Online will be closed Monday, Jan. 19, for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and Tuesday, Jan. 20, due to the presidential inauguration. Please check back on Wednesday, Jan. 21, for the latest trucking and freight transportation news.

I think everyone is becoming tired of the continued drama from the hours-of-service debacle. Does the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration really believe they can reissue the same rules the courts have thrown out twice and they will now be accepted?

The Environmental Protection Agency has completed its draft of new regulations to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from cars and trucks, Bloomberg reported.

A design flaw in steel plates contributed to the collapse of a bridge in Minneapolis last year that killed 13 people and injured more than 100, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, citing the National Transportation Safety Board.

New York state transportation planners are turning more right-angle intersections into roundabouts, which are derided by many but proven in a national study to be safer than some intersections with stop signs or traffic signals, the Associated Press reported.

Prices paid to U.S. producers dipped 0.1% in December but jumped 6.3% for all of 2007, the most in 26 years, the Labor Department said Tuesday.

American Trucking Associations welcomed a delegation of Chinese trucking officials to its headquarters in Arlington, Va., Monday, where the two talked about international trucking issues in the two countries.

The Missouri Department of Transportation shut down Interstate 64 on Jan. 2 and began the largest construction project in the agency’s history, the Associated Press reported.