Safety

Transportation and logistics firm C.H. Robinson Worldwide's 2006 net income rose to $266.9 million or $1.53 a share, up from $203.4 million or $1.16 in 2005.

Transportation firm Con-way Inc. earned $82.4 million or $1.66 a share in the fourth quarter, up from $49.9 million or 90 cents a year earlier.

Automobile carrier Performance Transportation Services said late Monday it emerged from its voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding.

Tank truck carrier Quality Distribution lowered its earnings guidance for the fourth quarter and full-year 2006, due to lower seasonal demand.

The president of trucking software provider TMW Systems said he does not expect a slowdown in sales this year, even as some trucking companies face a downturn in demand for freight-hauling services.

The maintenance managers of two vehicle leasing companies expect few problems in their shops as the truck-operating industry shifts to the next generation of lower-emission diesel engines.

American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted truck tonnage index jumped 3.9% in December, following a 3.6% downturn in November.

State police said wreckage from a 50-vehicle chain-reaction crash was cleared and a 10-mile stretch of Interstate 90 east of Erie, Pa., was reopened shortly after 3 a.m. local time following a big snowstorm, the Associated Press reported.

Truckload carrier Swift Transportation Co. said late Wednesday its fourth-quarter profit fell from a year earlier due to a “soft freight environment.”

Ford Motor Co. lost $5.8 billion in the fourth quarter amid slumping sales and huge restructuring costs, pushing the No. 2 U.S. automaker’s s loss for the year to $12.7 billion, the largest in its 103-year history, the Associated Press reported.