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As the ongoing storm hovers over the trucking industry, some carriers are so busy hunkering down that they have forgotten to look for the silver lining in those clouds, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

Bob Costello, American Trucking Associations’ chief economist, has been appointed by Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to the Advisory Council on Transportation Statistics, which advises DOT’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

Business groups, including American Trucking Associations, said they had concerns about the recently enacted health-care reform package.

Truck tonnage rose 2.6% in February, the third consecutive year-over-year increase, as the industry continues a steady rebound, American Trucking Associations reported.

A new diesel-emissions-reduction program at the Port of New York and New Jersey that will ban pre-1994 trucks beginning in 2011 will be costly and burdensome for motor carriers and comes at a time when fleets are reeling from the recession, state trucking officials said.

The owners of more than two-thirds of the 2,200 new Class 8 trucks bought with the assistance of $20,000 each in Port of Los Angeles grants face financial penalties because their trucks will not make the required 300 gate moves during their first year of operation, port officials said.

Electronic onboard recorders should be mandatory for all truckers operating in North America, the president of the said.

Manufacturers and their dealers sold 19.1% more big trucks in February than they did a year earlier, marking the second consecutive month in which Class 8 sales beat their year-ago totals, according to WardsAuto.com.