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Against the backdrop of political and regulatory uncertainty, American Trucking Associations members will come together this week to talk primarily about the business of trucking, the state of the industry, the health of the economy and new opportunities for carriers here and abroad.

Heavy-duty U.S. retail truck sales continued this year’s collapse in September, falling 58.8% as Class 8 volume totaled less than half year-earlier sales for the fifth month in a row, according to the latest survey from Ward’s Communications.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is expected to issue a revised hours-of-service rule that would keep two key provisions a federal court struck down but would address the court’s concerns over those provisions, according to ATA President Bill Graves.

The national average retail price of diesel fuel rose 0.4 cent to $3.039 a gallon last week, the Department of Energy reported, and analysts were predicting additional increases as crude oil prices neared an un-precedented $90 a barrel.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said last month that bales of hay and straw could be secured by less stringent methods than standard cargo-securing regulations require, because of the nature of those commodities.

Heavy equipment and diesel engine manufacturer Caterpillar Inc. said Friday its third-quarter profit jumped 21%, though it cut its full-year earnings outlook.

Return on investment is a standard measurement of the dollar value of an information technology system. Small or medium-sized fleets likely focus their financials on cost per truck — “per seat,” in the IT lexicon.

Ryder System said Friday that that aerospace firm Boeing Co. has chosen Ryder to provide global transportation management services.