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The U.S. economy’s service sector rate of contraction slowed last month, the Institute for Supply Management said Tuesday.

Transportation software firm Xata Corp. said Monday it lost $443,000, or 5 cents per share, in its fiscal second quarter, compared with a loss of $1.3 million, or 17 cents, a year ago.

The Environmental Protection Agency is close to proposing standards for ethanol use, but officials face a question on whether or not ethanol’s indirect effects on the environment should be considered in the rule-making process, the Associated Press reported Sunday.

Truckload carrier P.A.M. Transportation Services reported a first-quarter loss of $3.4 million, or 36 cents per share, compared with a loss of $2.8 million, or 29 cents, a year ago.

The most onerous and misguided portions of the plan by the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to reshape the trucking industry there have been enjoined by a federal court, at least for now.

The Obama administration is continuing to work on a plan to restart cross-border trucking between the United States and Mexico, even as the two countries battle the spread of “swine flu.”

The refrigerated sector of the trucking industry has been the only healthy activity for fleets in the current recession. Refrigerated truckload shipments grew slightly from last year, but dry vans, tankers and flatbeds all dropped substantially, industry executives and American Trucking Associations said.

A pair of congressmen introduced legislation late last month to provide tax credits for fleets purchasing four types of safety technology.

Corporate-owned truck fleets are facing growing pressure to justify their in-house freight operations as manufacturers and retailers target transportation expenses in response to the sharp nationwide downturn in sales.

California environmental regulators have approved a new standard that will require a 10% reduction in the carbon content of transportation fuels by 2020 and encourage a transition to nonpetroleum-based fuels.