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Your front-page article April 7 about auxiliary power units possibly saving on fuel quoted an APU maker’s spokesman who stated (like many others I have seen) that idling truck engines use up to 1.8 gallons of fuel an hour.

The automobile industry is focusing on state lawmakers in an effort to head off any plans to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions similarly to California, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Competition among fuel-card providers to keep major fleets is intensifying as carriers seek to mitigate the $4-a-gallon cost of fuel by paying closer attention to how it’s purchased.

WASHINGTON — The government should not only stop filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, but also consider releasing oil to help lower the price of diesel fuel, Dave Berry, chairman of the American Trucking Associations’ environmental and energy policy committee, told Congress last week.

I am interested in the feedback on fuel prices displayed in “Letters to the Editor.” Unfortunately, most of the letters did not focus on two salient facts affecting the price of oil. The first is the dismal exchange rate of the U.S. dollar versus the euro, and the second is world demand for petroleum products.

The Department of Transportation proposed Tuesday to boost fuel-efficiency standards for cars and light trucks by almost 25% by the year 2015.

Forward Air Corp.’s first-quarter profit was $10 million, or 35 cents a share, compared with $10.3 million, or 34 cents, a year earlier.

Rising fuel costs, weakening demand for freight hauling and the subprime lending crisis are making it tougher for drivers and trucking companies to qualify for financing to buy equipment.

The use of heavier trucks can be an effective way for the industry to reduce fuel consumption and emissions, a new study by the American Transportation Research Institute said.

Brent Hilton, the 2008 chairman of the Technology & Maintenance Council, said one of the focuses of his term will be to increase membership among service dealerships that perform essential “heavy-duty” maintenance for trucking.