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Although the overall credit market appears to be returning to some semblance of normalcy, trucking executives said they still face higher borrowing costs as many commercial banks remain cautious about lending and uncertainty persists about the U.S. economic recovery.

I.D. Systems Inc., Hackensack, N.J., paid $15 million in cash to purchase General Electric Co.’s trailer-tracking business, Asset Intelligence LLC, the companies announced.

Within hours of the devastating Haitian earthquake, the president of TEC Equipment Inc., a chain of West Coast truck dealerships, received an e-mail from an employee asking, “What are we doing about Haiti?”

Trucking company failures accelerated in the fourth quarter of 2009 and will continue to rise this year as fleets in the worst financial shape run out of cash and creditors run out of patience with them, a new Avondale Partners report said.

Truck tonnage rose in December for the first time in 15 months, year-over-year, as the U.S. economy picked up steam, American Trucking Associations reported.

U.S. factory shipments of commercial trailers plunged 44% in 2009 from the previous year to 80,415 units, the lowest total since 1975, as dry van shipments fell to the lowest level since 1961, ACT Research Co. reported.

The U.S. retail diesel average price fell 3.7 cents a gallon to $2.833 last week, the largest one-week decline since July, the Department of Energy reported.

Truck maker Paccar Inc.’s fourth-quarter profit fell to $46.1 million, or 13 cents a share, from $113.1 million, or 31 cents, a year ago.