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A new diesel-emissions-reduction program at the Port of New York and New Jersey that will ban pre-1994 trucks beginning in 2011 will be costly and burdensome for motor carriers and comes at a time when fleets are reeling from the recession, state trucking officials said.

Congress should include comprehensive funding policies in the upcoming transportation reauthorization bill both to modernize freight transportation and reduce diesel emissions, an environmental group said in a report last week.

Industry groups and some state governments hailed the decision blocking all states from collecting Unified Carrier Registration fees until the federal government sets fee levels for 2010, but other states said the move could hamstring their safety programs.

Manufacturers and their dealers sold 19.1% more big trucks in February than they did a year earlier, marking the second consecutive month in which Class 8 sales beat their year-ago totals, according to WardsAuto.com.

Many truckload fleets have almost overnight found themselves in a mini driver shortage, as demand for freight-hauling capacity is suddenly climbing in some markets and carriers expecting better times seek to put more trucks on the road.

The owners of more than two-thirds of the 2,200 new Class 8 trucks bought with the assistance of $20,000 each in Port of Los Angeles grants face financial penalties because their trucks will not make the required 300 gate moves during their first year of operation, port officials said.

FedEx Corp. posted a 146% increase in quarterly net income driven by explosive growth in returns at its air express division and a nearly one-third increase in ground parcel delivery profits, the second-largest company in North American freight transportation said March 18.

Electronic onboard recorders should be mandatory for all truckers operating in North America, the president of the Canadian Trucking Alliance said.

President Obama on March 18 signed into law an extension of the highway bill through the end of the year as part of a $17.6 billion package of tax incentives and bonding proposals aimed at spurring job creation.

The U.S. retail diesel price average rose another 2 cents to a 16-month high of $2.924 a gallon last week, the fourth straight increase, the Department of Energy reported.