���ϳԹ���

An Alabama appeals court ruled Friday that a trucking company with headquarters in the state should not have been required to pay more than $900,000 in state use tax for trucks that were originally delivered to a terminal in Ohio, a state appeals court ruled Friday, the Associated Press reported.

Investors in trucking stocks, who watched share prices fall in the second half of 2006 and rebound this spring, are now waiting for a verdict on the U.S. economy.

The Senate last week weakened legislation that would have set mileage standards for heavy trucks, instead ordering an 18-month study of large-truck fuel economy before the government can set such standards.

Class 8 truck makers said they are offering electronically controlled air disc brakes as an option in 2007 models, promoting them as safer and easier to maintain than the drum brakes most U.S. heavy trucks use.

Driver turnover at large truckload carriers climbed to its highest point in more than a year, rising six percentage points to an annualized rate of 127% in the first quarter, American Trucking Associations said.

Auto parts maker Delphi Corp. said Friday it had reached a tentative agreement with the United Auto Workers union covering work plans, transitions and other issues.

The Senate passed a comprehensive energy bill late Thursday that raises average auto fuel efficiency standards, but the measure did not include a tax on oil companies that would have boosted alternative fuel development, Agence France-Press reported.

FedEx Corp. drivers in Massachusetts received certification as members of the Teamsters union, the first unit in the company’s home-delivery network to get that recognition, Bloomberg reported.