Equipment

U.S. retail sales of medium-duty trucks — Classes 3-7 — jumped 54.5% in July from the corresponding month a year ago, the largest year-over-year gain since mid-2005 and the biggest sales month this year, WardsAuto.com reported.

Manufacturing levels in the Philadelphia region showed contraction for the first time in a year, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said Thursday.

The changes the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is making to its CSA safety-monitoring system will lead to increased enforcement in the two areas that correlate least with future crash risk, an examination of the revisions has found.

An Environmental Protection Agency proposal to designate scrap tires and used oil as solid waste could be extremely costly for the trucking industry, American Trucking Associations said.

Federal legislation that would ban the use of double-decker trailers to transport horses has drawn the ire of trucking and other interest groups because they say there has not been adequate debate.

Legislation that would ban the transportation of horses in double-decker trailers would cost the nearly 80 contractors who transport livestock to rodeos all over the U.S. more than $4 million in extra operating and equipment costs, according to estimates by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association.

Japanese firm UD Trucks Corp., a unit of Volvo AB, will invest about $60 million to set up a commercial vehicle diesel engine production line near Tokyo, Bloomberg reported Monday.

The U.S. economy’s service sector expanded at a faster pace in July, the Institute for Supply Management said Wednesday.

Commercial vehicle component manufacturer Accuride Corp. said it earned $6.5 million in the second quarter, compared with a loss of $36.1 million a year ago.