Safety

Second-quarter U.S. worker productivity rose at an annual rate of 2.6%, the most in almost two years, the Labor Department said Thursday.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has sent its court-ordered revision of new-driver training guidelines to the White House Office of Management and Budget, and trucking industry and safety officials said they hoped the agency would publish the new rule before the end of the year.

Federal rail regulators are backing a technological change that will enable trains to stop more quickly while permitting them to travel longer distances between required brake tests, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.

An Italian manufacturer chose Ryder System to manage its supply chain operations in China, Ryder said late Tuesday.

A court decision vacating two aspects of the regulations that determine the work hours of professional truck drivers could erase a rule that contributed to a 4.7% decline in large-truck-related crash deaths in 2006 — unless cooler heads prevail.

On the front page of the July 30 issue of Transport Topics, there was an article titled, “NHTSA Revises ’06 Deaths Down to Lowest Total Since 2002.” On the same front page, there was another article titled, “Court Rejects HOS Rule.” Does anyone in the government read their own reports?

The Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index declined last month, ISM said Tuesday.

In a time when a computer is more likely to answer a business phone than a live human being, getting a call from a breathing, thinking person at 2 a.m. telling you that your Volvo is showing some unusually serious departures from its normal coolant temperature has to qualify as unique

Continued softness in the housing industry contributed to another month’s drop in truck freight volume during July, when tonnage fell 3.7% from last year, American Trucking Associations said last week.

The Surface Transportation Board said it will conduct a sweeping analysis of competition in the U.S. railroad industry, after a new government report raised suspicion that some rail freight rates in selected markets might not be justified or reasonable.