Government

Housing starts fell in November and building permits, an indicator of future construction, plunged to the lowest level in 14 years, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.

Members of the New York State Assembly are asking the public to help them block the New York Thruway Authority from raising tolls, the Syracuse Post-Standard reported Tuesday.

After two failed attempts, the Senate late on Dec. 13 passed an energy bill that includes the potential start of a program to increase heavy-duty truck mileage.

Smith Electric Vehicles said it plans to establish a factory in the United States to produce up to 10,000 battery-powered trucks a year, starting in 2010.

Manufacturing growth in New York state fell this month, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said Monday.

Statistics Canada said an estimated 3,579 for-hire trucking companies in that country had annual revenues of at least C$1 million in the first quarter of 2007.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, in a long-awaited response to a ruling striking down key portions of its driver hours-of-service regulation, said it would continue allowing drivers 11 hours behind the wheel daily and letting them reset the weekly limit after a 34-hour break.

Truck trailer sales and production continued to lag through the third quarter, with U.S. registrations of new units down 24.7%, year-over-year, and the decline of industrywide production levels accelerating.

The number of people killed in large-truck crashes for every mile driven and the rate of fatal crashes involving large trucks fell to all-time lows in 2006, according to a Transport Topics analysis of data from the Department of Transportation.