Business

These dunderheads in Washington, D.C., need a check-up from the neck up. How about mandating minimum rates coming out of the ports so the drayage operators can afford to buy newer trucks without federal funds? That’s a good way to save a few million dollars on the deficit, don’t you think?

Imagine a time when a statewide trucking organization, in order to help its state government pay for necessary improvements to roads and bridges, supports a proposal that the state float a bond issue to cover the work and volunteers to have its members pay most of the bills for the work through a jump in the diesel fuel tax.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has approved two stretches of state highway for use by wider truck trailers.

Driver turnover at larger truckload fleets reached the highest level in nearly three years during the first quarter as higher pay, aggressive recruiting and increased freight demand prompted drivers to find new positions, according to American Trucking Associations.

Trucking industry costs dipped slightly from 2008 to the first quarter of 2010, but higher costs for equipment and tires have continued to drive up costs since then, a new American Transportation Research Institute report said.

Most publicly traded trucking, logistics and railroad companies saw their stock prices rise over the past 12 months, despite the recent downturn on Wall Street caused by rising fuel prices, natural disasters and political unrest in the Middle East and North Africa.

Arkansas truckers, whose leadership convinced state legislators to approve a 5-cent-a-gallon diesel tax increase for highway repairs, are seeking a new funding source after a plan to put the tax proposal before the voters ran into stiff opposition.

PHOENIX — American Trucking Associations wants to reinvigorate its operational councils, the group’s president said at industry meetings here, and especially in the field of technology, where significant developments have changed freight transportation dramatically.

FedEx Corp.’s earnings jumped 33% in its fiscal fourth quarter, led by a return to profitability at its less-than-truckload FedEx Freight unit after six consecutive quarters of losses.

The average price of a gallon of retail diesel dipped for the sixth time in the past seven weeks, even before 28 nations agreed June 23 to release 60 million barrels of crude oil from their strategic reserves in a bid to drive fuel prices lower around the world.