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The U.S. economy’s service sector continued to contract in March, the Institute for Supply Management said Friday.

We’re pleased to see that President Obama’s administration is at work crafting a plan to reopen the United States to trucks from Mexico, as agreed to years ago when the North American Free Trade Agreement was ratified.

An Illinois jury has awarded $23.8 million in damages against leading freight broker C.H. Robinson Worldwide in a dual-fatality 2004 truck accident case involving a motor carrier hired to haul a load of potatoes.

FedEx Corp. last week won a Washington state class action case that affirmed the company’s position on driver classification.

Two senior House Democratic leaders last week introduced a sweeping greenhouse gas bill that includes a cap-and-trade program and would expand motor carriers’ use of SmartWay technologies.

Two regional less-than-truckload carriers announced across-the-board pay cuts because of deteriorating freight volumes and prices, Saia Inc. by 5% for salaried employees and drivers, and Ward Trucking Corp. by 8.9%. Both companies said executives’ pay was cut even more.

Four more trucking companies, including Chicago-area less-than-truckload carrier Mid-States Express Inc., have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, becoming the latest casualties of the continuing economic downturn and credit crunch.

The U.S. Coast Guard is beginning to review how biometric devices should be added to federal transport security cards that are becoming mandatory for truckers and everyone else who wants access to secure port areas.

An accounting rules shift could trigger fundamental changes in a truck leasing market worth as much as $70 billion by reducing the attractiveness of renting equipment and reducing fleets’ access to debt.