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MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Freightliner dealer TAG Truck Center held an open house here for customers earlier this month to demonstrate a 2010 tractor that uses selective catalytic reduction and answer questions about the emission technology Freightliner will use to meet tougher emission standards.

The trucking industry lost 8,100 jobs in May, the lowest total in eight months and roughly half the number that were laid off in April, the Labor Department reported.

Federal funds to stimulate highway projects are moving in fits and starts through the bureaucratic funding pipeline, delivering new work for some fleets while others get no benefit from the $26.7 billion economic recovery effort.

Truck and engine manufacturer Navistar Inc. last week leveled new allegations against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, accusing the federal regulator of privately and illegally giving its competitors the green light to deploy a selective catalyst reduction emission control technology that could be implemented only with an “illegal relaxation” of EPA’s 2010 nitrogen oxide emission standard.

Trucking industry groups closed ranks in support of Anne Ferro to head the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, after the Teamsters union and a handful of advocacy groups said they opposed her nomination.

Still smarting from record fuel costs last year and fighting to survive a global recession, the trucking industry is wincing over a five-week run-up in diesel prices, capped by a 14.6-cent jump last week.

U.S. consumer confidence rose this month for the fourth consecutive time, according to the Reuters/University of Michigan monthly consumer sentiment index released Friday.

The price of goods imported to the United States rose for a third straight month in May as oil prices continued to increase, the Labor Department said Friday.

Business inventories fell 1.1% in April, the eighth consecutive decline, the Commerce Department said Thursday.