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Despite recession-related declines in trade with the United States, Mexico’s potential as an economic power has shippers and fleet executives taking advantage of the emerging market there.

The drop in U.S. truck tonnage accelerated in April, plunging 13.2% below the same month in 2008 to the lowest level since November 2001 — just after the 9/11 terrorist attacks — American Trucking Associations reported last week.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration plans to have a proposal for opening the U.S.-Mexico border to longhaul trucking ready when Congress returns from its Memorial Day recess, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said, adding that he thought the plan could be implemented as soon as this summer.

A wave of transportation mergers and acquisitions may be on the horizon, as the recession weeds out distressed companies and carriers shop for bargains to help them secure more freight, several industry watchers said.

Active Transportation said it bought majority ownership in Jack Cooper Transport, a move that consolidates two car haulers at a time when auto industry sales are at the lowest level since 1981.

An appeals court has upheld federal rules requiring “direct observation” of drug tests for transportation workers who either have failed or refused to take a test as a condition of employment.

Truck and engine manufacturer Navistar Inc. has challenged the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to certify heavy-duty diesel engines using selective catalytic reduction to meet the agency’s 2010 standards for emissions of nitrogen oxides.

Manufacturing activity in the Chicago declined in April, showing contraction for a seventh straight month, the Institute for Supply Chain Management-Chicago said Friday.

Truckers who pull refrigerated trailers into and around California have less than two months to prep for a rule that requires the small diesel engines that power older reefers to meet a state emission standard.