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Whether the product is laundry detergent or basketballs or almost anything else, changing the way things are packaged to make the most out of a trailer’s space is introducing a little-noticed structural change to the trucking industry.

Freight carriers are preparing for a relatively weak peak shipping season this year as major retailers react to sluggish economic growth by cutting back on imports and reducing the volume of goods that typically move by truck and rail during what is usually the busiest shipping period in the third and fourth quarters.

American Trucking Associations Wednesday called on Congress to help the trucking industry to improve highway safety by supporting efforts to enhance drug and alcohol testing for the nation’s 3.4 million truck drivers.

WASHINGTON — American Trucking Associations Chairman Ray Kuntz asked a Senate committee Wednesday to make fundamental changes to federal surface transportation programs in order to allow the trucking industry to move freight more efficiently.

Little wonder that fuel efficiency was a major focus of equipment and service vendors exhibiting at the Mid-America Trucking Show last week.

Volvo Trucks North America said Friday it failed to reach agreement with the United Auto Workers union on a labor contract that expired Thursday, and about 2,600 UAW members at its manufacturing plant in Virginia went on strike there Friday.

The commission in charge of creating congestion-fee plan for New York City voted Thursday to approve a scaled-down version of an original proposal, but the plan would still charge cars and most trucks fees to enter the central part of Manhattan, the Associated Press reported.

Florida officials are banning trucks from the left lane of a 40-mile stretch of the Florida Turnpike in South Florida starting Friday, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.