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In the trucking dispatch room of the future, the only sound is of cooling fans whirring inside computer casings.  Gone are the cubicles that once honeycombed the floor, as are the chattering dispatchers who once staffed them.

U.S. consumer confidence dropped in February from a two-year high, according to the Reuters/University of Michigan monthly consumer sentiment index released Friday.

Retail sales climbed 0.5% in January, the third increase in four months, the Commerce Department said Friday.

The mid-Atlantic region is the latest area to be reminded of Mother Nature’s capriciousness and unrelenting fury, as a seemingly endless string of major snowstorms has dumped record amounts from Virginia to New Jersey.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has published a proposed rule that would toughen its workplace drug-testing program for truck drivers and other transportation workers, including testing for the drugs “ecstasy” and heroin.

Diesel prices largely held steady last week, with the national average price per gallon at $2.835, falling just 1.7 cents from the previous week, according to AAA’s daily price report for Feb. 11.

TAMPA, Fla. — A major truck-making executive and the chairman of American Trucking Associations offered differing views on the future of trucking, but both agreed that federal regulation of business is generating unwelcome distortions of how firms can operate.

Trucking and intermodal leaders are pressing the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to change two key safety reporting steps before the agency’s delayed chassis safety rule finally takes effect on June 30.

DULLES, Va. — For Dennis Halsey, it was a return trip nearly a decade in the making.

The record-breaking blizzard last week, the second massive storm in a week to hit the mid-Atlantic region, caused Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania to close highways for at least part of Feb. 10, and forced trucks to park and delivery schedules to absorb delays.