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Con-way Exec Named to FMCSA Safety Committee • Ford Recalls Medium-Duty Trucks • Ontario Trucking Sets Plan to Recover Stolen Cargo

NEW ORLEANS — While great trials may provide drama and public fascination, mediation of accident claims — a process that avoids that drama — is daily life for trucking companies and other transportation providers. Those involved with the system said mediation takes special skills and techniques.

American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted truck tonnage index for February fell 1.7% from the same month a year ago, marking the eighth straight year-to-year decline, ATA said late Monday.

Paccar Inc. said it will shut down truck production for several days in April at two Kenworth Truck Co. plants and two Peterbilt Motor Co. factories, cut its build rate for heavy trucks and lay off an unspecified number of workers.

A coalition of shippers and marine terminal operators are supporting an overhaul of regulations in California that would include fees on port drayage trucks that do not meet environmental standards, the Long Beach Press-Telegram reported Monday.

Driver turnover at large truckload carriers dropped 13 percentage points last year — the first decline since 2001 — while it rose by an identical percentage at smaller truckload carriers, according to a survey produced by American Trucking Associations.

Paccar Inc., the parent of Kenworth Truck Co., will temporarily shut down production at Kenworth’s Chillicothe, Ohio, plant, the Chillicothe Gazette reported.

Driver turnover at large truckload carriers dropped 13% last year — the first decline since 2001 — while it rose by an identical percentage at smaller truckload carriers, according to American Trucking Associations.

The trucking industry is willing to pay higher fuel taxes as long as the money is spent to improve the highway infrastructure, American Trucking Associations President Bill Graves said.