Safety

Ray Martinez's top priorities would be ensuring proper regulatory balance and smooth integration of self-driving technologies, and expanding partnerships with the private sector if he is confirmed to lead the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

Two weeks after Universal Logistics Holdings offered a bright outlook for its third-quarter earnings report, the company reversed course Oct. 19, telling investors that a jury verdict will knock it back once again.

The percentage of U.S. workers in “safety-sensitive” jobs — a category that includes truck drivers — who flunked their federally-mandated drug tests increased at an “alarming” rate from 2015 to 2016, according to an analysis of drug testing data collected by the nation’s largest lab. Overall, the percentage of safety-sensitive workers who failed crept up year-over-year, the report said.

Ray Martinez, nominated for the top post at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, received a strong endorsement from Sen. John Thune, a key policymaker for the trucking industry.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will grant UPS Inc. temporary exemption from parts of the upcoming electronic logging device mandate, according to a document scheduled for publication in the Federal Register on Oct. 20.

Technology, tax reform and new initiatives to resolve the trucking industry’s persistent labor shortage will be front and center at American Trucking Associations’ Management Conference & Exhibition.

Alphabet Inc.’s autonomous vehicle technology will be a big part of its Toronto project to make urban life more Googley.

Intel Corp. has developed a system it says ensures that self-driving vehicles can’t cause accidents, an effort to reassure a skeptical public and help speed adoption of driverless cars on the road.

The Idaho Transportation Department is using recently approved funds to widen the portion of Interstate 84 that runs through Nampa, a city about 20 miles west of Boise that has seen increased traffic in recent years.