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Consumer personal spending rose 0.5 in January, marking the fourth straight increase, the Commerce Department said Monday.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s new enforcement plan, Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010, seems destined to be a major step forward in how the federal government oversees truck fleets and drivers.

Iowa’s trucking industry lost a dear friend and valued leader this past week. John Ruan was one of the three founders of the Iowa Motor Truck Association.

Orders for new trailers rose 10% in January, compared with 2009, ACT Research Co. LLC reported last week, but the increase may not signal the start of a prolonged recovery, an ACT analyst said.

Intermodal freight volumes showed their first year-over-year gain in 15 months during December as the U.S. economy improved, raising hopes for a resurgence, said the latest Intermodal Association of North America market report.

The lengthy and ongoing truck sales drought caused America’s Class 8 truck fleet to contract 2.1% during the fourth quarter, the first such decline since the third quarter of 2008, according to the year-end report on commercial vehicle registrations by R.L. Polk & Co.

The U.S. Senate last week passed legislation that would extend current highway legislation and transfer $20 billion to the Highway Trust Fund, but a key legislator reportedly said the Senate bill would not pass the House of Representatives, which already has approved a broader, more expensive measure.

While U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson indicated last week that her agency was moving forward with plans to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, opposition to a Senate cap-and-trade bill seemed to be gaining enough momentum to block its passage.

January truck tonnage rose 5.7%, the biggest year-over-year increase in five years and solid evidence of a recovery in the industry and the U.S. economy, American Trucking Associations reported last week.

WASHINGTON — Officials attending American Trucking Associations’ Winter Leadership Meeting here last week said they were more optimistic about the future than they were a year ago, because the economic fortunes and political winds appear to be changing.