Business

The total U.S. Class 8 truck fleet expanded to 3.63 million vehicles at the end of the third quarter, the highest level in four years and up 3% from the same period a year earlier, according to registration data from R.L. Polk & Co.

Manitoulin Transport, an Ontario-based carrier, said it has acquired truckload and less-than-truckload carrier Smooth Freight. Terms were not disclosed.

For 25 years or longer, operating ratio (the ratio of operating expenses to operating revenue) has been a common measure of profitability and efficiency in the truckload transportation industry.

New data clearly support what many of us have been saying for months: The new changes to the federal hours-of-service rule for truck drivers are reducing productivity, undermining service levels and raising costs.

HOUSTON — Chassis users can expect higher rates, better quality equipment and no short-term resolution to the intermodal industry’s equipment challenges, top executives of the three largest chassis leasing companies said.

ATLANTA — Natural gas-vehicle stakeholders said that after making strides in fueling the “return-to-base” trucking market, they are now moving to zero in on the over-the-road heavy-duty segment of the market.

U.S. truck tonnage rose 8% in October from a year earlier, even though it fell short of the all-time high recorded in the previous month, American Trucking Associations reported.

House Republicans and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administrator Anne Ferro sparred over the 34-hour restart provision of the new hours-of-service rule for truck drivers at a hearing last week, with some members accusing her agency of “arrogance” and slowness in producing a congressionally required study on the rule.

A bill requiring companies to track the distribution of prescription drugs and pharmaceuticals was approved by Congress last week.