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Already several years behind deploying biometric card readers to identify transportation industry workers at the nation’s ports, the Transportation Security Administration is not expected to issue a proposal for regulating the devices until late 2012.

The head of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance said a proposed rule requiring that flammable liquids be purged from tank truck wetlines during transport is “for practical purposes unenforceable in the field.”

U.S. truck tonnage rose 6.3% in March, the 16th consecutive year-over-year increase, as U.S. economic growth continued even in the face of sharply higher fuel costs, American Trucking Associations reported.

The average retail price of U.S. diesel declined for only the second time in about four months last week, slipping 0.7 cent to $4.098 a gallon on the coattails of relatively stable crude oil prices, the Department of Energy said.

Universal Truckload Services’ first-quarter income rose from a year ago as load volumes improved.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. Friday reported a first-quarter profit, turning around a loss from a year ago, as sales jumped 27% from a year ago to a record.

This week’s tornado outbreak across the South destroyed damaged or several trucking facilities, company executives said.

Heavy equipment maker Caterpillar Inc. said Friday its first-quarter profit more than quintupled on higher sales, and its boosted its full-year earnings outlook.

Consumer personal spending rose 0.6% in March, the Commerce Department said Friday.