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ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Trucks represent about  4% of all registered vehicles in the United States and account for 9% of total vehicle miles traveled, but they were involved in 12% of all highway fatalities, according to a federal analysis of truck-involved fatal crashes presented to the Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee.

The owner of a Georgia trucking company has pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy to violate an imminent hazard out-of-service order issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

A proposal to create a national database of truck drivers’ positive drug-and-alcohol test results will be made public Feb. 14, the Department of Transportation said.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a proposed rule that will toughen the requirements for truckers carrying food, as well as shippers and receivers.

WASHINGTON — After saying for a year that all options need to be “on the table,” House Transportation Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) last week took higher fuel taxes off the menu of ways to pay for transportation.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office said last week that some data included in the federal government’s Compliance, Safety Accountability program do not have a “strong predictive relationship with crashes.”

A loss of research data is “disturbing” and will hamper the ability of federal agencies to effectively regulate truck safety, said Deborah Hersman, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.

A pair of leading dry-freight trailer manufacturers told Transport Topics they are prepared to supply 53-foot household goods vans — a market dominated by another manufacturer — to carriers anticipating a moving season that could become the best in years.