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American Trucking Associations’ Intermodal Motor Carriers Conference has asked the Federal Maritime Commission to block the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles and terminal operators from discussing and entering into agreements related to the ports’ clean trucks program.

California environmental regulators said they will soon decide how to distribute early grants totaling $25 million for truck retrofits and replacements to help reduce diesel emissions at the state’s ports and intermodal facilities.

Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) told Transportation Secretary Mary Peters that her department was “arrogant” in its refusal to go along with what he said Congress intended when it prohibited funding for the DOT’s controversial U.S.-Mexico border trucking program.

Canada-based transportation firm Trimac Income Fund said its fourth-quarter net earnings were C$2.2 million or about 9 cents per unit, compared with C$3.1 million or 8 cents a year earlier.

NASSAU, Bahamas — Leaders of the Truckload Carriers Association said their members have seen no improvement in the thin freight market, despite reports that tonnage has increased in the past three months, and that their other great worry was sharply rising fuel prices.

Volkswagen AG last week bought a controlling share in Swedish truck maker Scania AB, possibly clearing the way for a three-way merger with German truck maker MAN AG, a combination that would create Europe’s largest heavy-truck producer.

While politicians and pollsters count up votes and delegates in the long, slow march to the presidential election this November, trucking industry officials said the upcoming change in power clouds the industry’s outlook for 2009 and beyond.

Retail diesel prices jumped another 10.6 cents a gallon last week to a new record national average of $3.658; diesel has now risen 37.8 cents a gallon over the past three weeks.