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Consumer personal spending fell 0.6% in November, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.

First-time unemployment claims rose to a 26-year high for the week ended Dec. 20, the Labor Department said Wednesday.

Strong volume increases at Freightliner and Navistar drove the expansion of U.S. heavy-duty truck sales into a sixth month during November, although for the full year, purchase levels are all but guaranteed to fall below those of 2007, according to the latest survey from WardsAuto.com.

Saddled with widespread layoffs and continued slumping sales, trailer manufacturers have low expectations for 2009, as fleet customers hunker down to cope with a recession, dwindling freight markets and tight credit.

Truckload driver turnover rates fell to the lowest levels since American Trucking Associations began collecting the data in 1995, as trucking companies cut jobs and trimmed the size of their fleets in the face of sharply falling freight-hauling demand in the third quarter.

A coalition of advocacy and labor groups last week again challenged the revised driver hours-of-service rule, asking the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to reconsider provisions in the rule that allow truckers to drive 11 hours in a workday and reset their weekly hour limit by taking 34 hours off.

Transport Topics Online will be closed Thursday and Friday for the Christmas holiday. Please check back on Monday, Dec. 28, for the latest trucking and freight transportation news.