Business

The mid-Atlantic region is the latest area to be reminded of Mother Nature’s capriciousness and unrelenting fury, as a seemingly endless string of major snowstorms has dumped record amounts from Virginia to New Jersey.

The Senate began debate last week on a proposal that would inject nearly $20 billion into the ailing Highway Trust Fund and extend the current highway spending law as part of a new jobs bill.

MOUNT VERNON, Wash. — Paccar Inc. officials last week officially unveiled the company’s first-ever heavy-duty diesel engine in North America, an advanced version of the power plant its European-based subsidiary has been producing for several years.

The record-breaking blizzard last week, the second massive storm in a week to hit the mid-Atlantic region, caused Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania to close highways for at least part of Feb. 10, and forced trucks to park and delivery schedules to absorb delays.

DULLES, Va. — For Dennis Halsey, it was a return trip nearly a decade in the making.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has published a proposed rule that would toughen its workplace drug-testing program for truck drivers and other transportation workers, including testing for the drugs “ecstasy” and heroin.

Trucking and intermodal leaders are pressing the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to change two key safety reporting steps before the agency’s delayed chassis safety rule finally takes effect on June 30.

Hopes for an economic recovery and the looming threat of government regulations will be main themes as the Truckload Carriers Association and Natso, the national association representing truck stops and travel plazas, hold their annual conferences from Feb. 27 to March 3 at separate locations in Las Vegas.

The long-depressed less-than-truckload market has stabilized and is showing initial signs of modest growth, LTL carriers said in fourth-quarter earnings statements.

YRC Worldwide Inc.’s loss from operations narrowed in the fourth quarter to $95 million from $135 million a year earlier as Chief Executive Officer William Zollars said the less-than-truckload company would continue the improving trend this year.