Business

Weak Class 8 truck sales around the world led to plunging revenue and either losses or vastly diminished first-quarter profits for three of the four major heavy-duty truck manufacturers and both independent engine makers operating in North America.

Corporate-owned truck fleets are facing growing pressure to justify their in-house freight operations as manufacturers and retailers target transportation expenses in response to the sharp nationwide downturn in sales.

Truck tonnage fell in March to its lowest level in seven years, as it declined 12.2% below the levels recorded one year earlier, according to an April 27 report from American Trucking Associations.

A pair of congressmen introduced legislation late last month to provide tax credits for fleets purchasing four types of safety technology.

Earnings at publicly traded less-than-truckload companies took a beating in the first quarter, as carriers competed fiercely to wrest freight from a dwindling market still mired in recession, a review of the companies’ financial reports shows.

The Obama administration is continuing to work on a plan to restart cross-border trucking between the United States and Mexico, even as the two countries battle the spread of “swine flu.”

California environmental regulators have approved a new standard that will require a 10% reduction in the carbon content of transportation fuels by 2020 and encourage a transition to nonpetroleum-based fuels.

Navistar will deliver International ProStar sleepers and day cabs powered by 2010 Environmental Protection Agency-certified MaxxForce 13 big bore engines using exhaust gas recirculation technology.

Manufacturing in the U.S. improved last month but still showed overall contraction, the Institute for Supply Management said Friday.

Dynamex has lowered its earnings guidance for the 2009 fiscal year, saying that a downturn in shipping volumes will bring sales down.