Safety

Less-than-truckload carrier Saia Inc. said Thursday it has acquired Wisconsin-based LTL company Madison Freight Systems for about $2.5 million.

The Institute for Supply Management’s January manufacturing index showed a contraction, as factories reined in orders to trim inventories, ISM said Thursday.

Truckload carrier Landstar System’s fourth-quarter net income fell to $28.7 million or 50 cents a share, from $41.8 million or 70 cents a year earlier.

TSA Awards TWIC Contract to Lockheed Martin • Canada Passes Border Security Bill • Railroads to Get More Safety Scrutiny • EU Customs Chief Criticizes Cargo-Screening Measure

Hino Motors Ltd., Japan’s largest maker of heavy-duty trucks, saw its fiscal third-quarter profit drop 45% as the company spent more to develop new models and expand production, Bloomberg reported.

Click here to write a Letter to the Editor.WASHINGTON — Shippers would like to see a switch to larger trucks, and U.S. safety inspectors monitoring size-and-weight rules could have more technology at their disposal in the coming years, according to a Transportation Research Board panel discussion here.

The Surface Transportation Board ruled that freight railroads not calculate their fuel surcharges as a percentage of their base rates.

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.