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A small airplane reporting on traffic made an emergency landing on the New Jersey Turnpike Monday morning, the Associated Press reported. No one was injured.

Consumer personal spending rose 0.2% in December, the third straight increase, the Commerce Department said Monday.

In questions of safety, heavier trucks are not the answer.

At long last, we report this week that American Trucking Associations’ freight index actually rose, as tonnage carried by fleets in December was 6.6% greater than what was moved in the same month of 2008.

DALLAS — Carrier officials and drivers told federal regulators that the hours-of-service rules work well, but could be improved by allowing more flexibility in the use of truck sleeper berths.

WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood last week issued an order immediately forbidding commercial drivers from texting on handheld mobile devices and instituting steep fines for violators.

In his first State of the Union address, President Obama called on Congress to pass legislation to create jobs through infrastructure spending and tax cuts, but his proposed freeze in nondefense spending starting in 2011 could complicate the passage of a new highway bill, observers said last week.

Within hours of the devastating Haitian earthquake, the president of TEC Equipment Inc., a chain of West Coast truck dealerships, received an e-mail from an employee asking, “What are we doing about Haiti?”

U.S. factory shipments of commercial trailers plunged 44% in 2009 from the previous year to 80,415 units, the lowest total since 1975, as dry van shipments fell to the lowest level since 1961, ACT Research Co. reported.

The U.S. retail diesel average price fell 3.7 cents a gallon to $2.833 last week, the largest one-week decline since July, the Department of Energy reported.