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I recently started receiving Transport Topics and was especially interested in what you had to say the Feb. 22 p. 1 story, “Transportation Firms Must Improve Recruiting to Satisfy Customers’ Desires, Leaders Say.”

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.

FedEx Corp. posted a 146% increase in quarterly net income driven by explosive growth in returns at its air express division and a nearly one-third increase in ground parcel delivery profits, the second-largest company in North American freight transportation said March 18.

ABF Freight System and the Teamsters union appear to be heading toward talks that could result in wage, health or pension concessions for the nation’s fifth-largest less-than-truckload carrier, officials from both sides have said.

Congress should include comprehensive funding policies in the upcoming transportation reauthorization bill both to modernize freight transportation and reduce diesel emissions, an environmental group said in a report last week.

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

President Obama on March 18 signed into law an extension of the highway bill through the end of the year as part of a $17.6 billion package of tax incentives and bonding proposals aimed at spurring job creation.

Industry groups and some state governments hailed the decision blocking all states from collecting Unified Carrier Registration fees until the federal government sets fee levels for 2010, but other states said the move could hamstring their safety programs.

The U.S. retail diesel price average rose another 2 cents to a 16-month high of $2.924 a gallon last week, the fourth straight increase, the Department of Energy reported.