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U.S. truck makers sold 17,308 Class 8 trucks in March, a 33% increase from the same month last year, but the news comes as several potentially troubling signs have appeared.

Driver turnover rates for truckload carriers unexpectedly dipped at the end of last year, but the American Trucking Associations economist who runs the survey characterized the shift as a temporary “reprieve” rather than a durable change in trend.

Standard & Poor’s is warning that Congress’ failure to pass a long-term transportation funding bill could provoke a credit-rating crisis similar to the one last summer when Congress balked at raising the nation’s debt ceiling.

The president of the National Private Truck Council said the 2012 Education Management Conference & Exhibition will include a focus on corporations expanding the capacity and capabilities of their in-house fleets.

For 18 years, regulators have been wrestling with a congressional mandate to issue a rule prohibiting trucks from proceeding into railroad crossings unless there is adequate space on the other side to avoid getting trapped on the tracks.

Daimler Trucks North America announced a recall of up to 8,747 recently built Freightliner Cascadia trucks and Western Star 4900s for possible seat problems and 1,000 Cascadias and Business Class M2s for possible steering wheel problems.

U.S. retail diesel prices rose 0.6 cent a gallon to $4.148 last week, the Department of Energy reported. Although the increase was small, it still caused fleet managers to express great concern as the national average hit the highest level since Aug. 18, 2008.

German truck maker MAN SE said Volkswagen AG has boosted its majority stake in the company to 73% of its common shares, Reuters reported Friday.