Business

The U.S. Department of Transportation last week launched a test to determine if trucks, cars and buses equipped with wireless devices that allow the vehicles and highway infrastructure to “talk” to each other will prevent crashes, and whether such connected vehicle technology should be required on all vehicles.

Truck tonnage rose 4.1% in July, extending the streak of consecutive year-over-year increases to 32, American Trucking Associations reported last week.

LISLE, Ill. — Navistar International Corp. executives last week revealed their strategy for introducing a refocused product line with different engine emissions control technology in a bid to recapture market share.

The Obama administration has offered states $472 million in federal funding for use toward any transportation construction that previously had been designated for specific projects.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration should provide more flexibility in its proposed mandate that new heavy trucks be equipped with electronic stability control systems, American Trucking Associations said in comments filed last week.

New regulatory guidance restricting the use of an hours-of-service exemption for some drivers involved in oil and gas drilling operations is increasing operating costs for the affected carriers, executives told federal regulators.

The U.S. retail diesel average price rose 6.1 cents to $4.026 a gallon last week, the first time it has risen above $4 since May, the Department of Energy reported last week.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood launched the Freight Policy Council, a group tasked with generating a national freight policy, as called for in the new highway funding law.

Oil held over $96 a barrel in early trading Friday as forecasters kept an eye on Tropical Storm Isaac, which is likely to move into the Gulf of Mexico next week as a low-level hurricane, Bloomberg reported.

Durable goods orders rose in July but declined excluding transportation orders, the Commerce Department said Friday.