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New housing starts plunged 13% to a record low in April, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.

The two main truck and engine companies of Daimler Trucks North America said they have provided truckload carrier Schneider National with two more test tractors powered by 2010-compliant diesel engines.

Heavy equipment and diesel engine maker Caterpillar Inc. said it will cut hours at least in half for 985 workers in its Lafayette, Ind., plant, the Associated Press reported Monday.

California’s transport refrigeration unit rule illegally imposes a national requirement on all motor carriers that enter the state, attorneys for American Trucking Associations and the Truckload Carriers Association told a federal appeals court.

Some 10,000 inspectors will be deployed across Canada, Mexico and the United States June 2-4 as part of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s annual Roadcheck event.

Canada-based transportation firm Trimac Income Fund said it lost C$700,000 in the first quarter, or 5 cents per unit, compared with a profit of C$600,000, or 2 cents, a year ago.

SAN DIEGO — A “perfect storm” of a nose-diving economy, high fuel prices and governmental missteps have all combined to ravage the trucking industry and the companies that supply its equipment, according to Jim Hebe, senior vice president of North American sales for Navistar Inc.

Details of the Environmental Protection Agency’s record $10.5 billion fiscal 2010 budget proposal — a 37% increase — quickly set off a partisan debate in Congress last week over the agency’s plans to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

The average price of retail gasoline soared last week, jumping 16.2 cents a gallon to a U.S. average of $2.24, leapfrogging diesel, which rose 3.1 cents to $2.216. Gasoline prices exceeded diesel for the first time in nearly two years.