���ϳԹ���

Freightliner Trucks introduced its first natural gas-powered tractor this month, and it will offer natural gas-powered vehicles in 90% of its truck applications by 2010.

WASHINGTON — Debbie Hersman, President Obama’s choice to lead the National Transportation Safety Board, told a Senate committee that other transportation agencies should voluntarily adopt the board’s recommendations, and if they don’t, Congress should order them to.

Truck-related highway fatalities plummeted 12% in 2008 to 4,229, the lowest total since the federal government began keeping records, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said.

Trucking fleets continued to shed jobs for the 14th consecutive month in June as total U.S. unemployment rose, but experts said economic and freight indicators finally appear to be heading in the right direction.

A steep and prolonged economic downturn forced many for-hire carriers to cut hauling capacity, but the stage may also be set for what one analyst called “the mother of all bull freight markets.”

Diesel prices dipped slightly for the second week in a row but, according to truckers and analysts, have yet to reflect the full effect of falling crude oil prices, record diesel surpluses and one of the worst freight recessions in trucking history.

YRC Worldwide said it has reached a new cost-cutting agreement with the Teamsters union and hired a financial adviser to work with key lenders as part of a broad effort to boost the carrier’s cash position.

Gregory Nadeau, a former official with the Maine Department of Transportation, was appointed deputy administrator of the Federal Highway Administration, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced July 1.

Truck and engine manufacturer Navistar Inc. has accused the Environmental Protection Agency of attempting to remove documents from official records and allowing the Engine Manufacturers Association to write the draft of its selective catalytic reduction guidance document for 2010 “in secret collaboration with certain engine makers.”

The Senate last week kicked off debate on an energy bill that includes a controversial cap-and-trade provision to limit carbon emissions, summoning four top Obama administration officials to testify before the committee that will craft the Senate version of climate change and energy policy legislation.