Safety

NEW ORLEANS — Sophisticated recording devices built into modern trucks and diesel engines can generate information that plaintiff’s attorneys can use to force fleets and their insurance companies to pay massive settlement claims.

Truck maker Volvo AB said its sales for the first two months of the year fell 13%, as U.S. deliveries plunged following new emissions standards that boosted truck prices, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

Truck and engine maker Navistar International Corp. said Tuesday it saw signs of strength in non-traditional and overseas vehicle markets, despite a 6% downturn in Class 6-8 North American truck and bus shipments in its fiscal first quarter.

US 1 Industries’ fourth-quarter income was $1.4 million or 11 cents a share, compared with $600,000 or 5 cents a year earlier.

Transportation firm EGL Inc. said Monday it has signed a definitive merger agreement under which EGL Chairman and Chief Executive Officer James Crane and two investment firms will buy the firm for $38 per share, or about $1.7 billion.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s recently proposed rule mandating the use of electronic onboard recorders for habitual violators of federal hours-of-service regulations has set in motion an industrywide discussion about the plan’s merits.

While much of the heavy-duty truck sales hoopla during 2006 focused on truck makers as they set new monthly and yearly sales records, trailer makers were quietly posting their third-best sales year ever, according to new data from ACT Research.

LAS VEGAS — Leaders of the Truckload Carriers Association said they will take a more active role in shaping trucking’s policy in the coming year and emphasize the need to provide drivers a safer work environment and wage stability.