Business

The American Transportation Research Institute said a government-commissioned study of the federal hours-of-service rule change was overly generous in crediting the new regulation for improving safety.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said it plans to raise the required $750,000 insurance minimum for interstate motor carriers because the amount is not adequate to cover the cost of some serious crashes.

The past few years’ boom in the oil and natural-gas recovery technique known as hydraulic fracturing has led to a corresponding boom in the tank and bulk trailer business, both for haulers and for manufacturers of the equipment.

Lawmakers are scheduled to return to Capitol Hill on April 28 for just 43 days before their extended summer recess, giving them a short window to approve a long-term, comprehensive transportation funding bill.

UPS Inc. last week said its first-quarter net income fell 12%, as higher costs triggered by bad winter weather cut companywide profitability by $200 million.

Comments with first-quarter earnings reports issued last week continued to trigger optimism about a pickup in freight in 2014, though severe winter weather dampened results for several prominent truckload fleets.

The National Labor Relations Board’s proposed rule governing “representation-case procedures” garnered nearly 75,000 comments, including dissents from two of the board’s five members.

The two main railroads serving the oil-producing states in the Upper Midwest have pledged to dedicate enough equipment to get adequate fertilizer shipments to farmers there in time for spring planting.

The average retail price of diesel increased 1.9 cents to $3.971 a gallon last week, ending a five-week decline, the Department of Energy reported.

The National Transportation Safety Board released a preliminary report April 25 confirming the sequence of events in the fatal crash involving a FedEx Freight truck and a bus in Orland, Calif., earlier this month.