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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.

U.S. construction spending fell 0.4% December, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.

The National Association of Purchasing Management-Chicago’s manufacturing index fell in January to the first contraction since April 2003, NAPM said Wednesday.

The U.S. economy expanded at a 3.5% annual rate in the fourth quarter, the Commerce Department said Wednesday, the strongest since last year’s first quarter.

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.

Crude oil futures posted their biggest one-day gain Tuesday since September 2005, rising on forecasts of continuing cold weather and expectations of a stronger U.S. economy, Bloomberg reported.

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.

The average retail price of diesel fuel fell 1.7 cents to $2.413 a gallon, the Energy Department reported Monday.