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Corporate-owned truck fleets are facing growing pressure to justify their in-house freight operations as manufacturers and retailers target transportation expenses in response to the sharp nationwide downturn in sales.

California environmental regulators have approved a new standard that will require a 10% reduction in the carbon content of transportation fuels by 2020 and encourage a transition to nonpetroleum-based fuels.

A federal judge last week issued a preliminary injunction blocking many of the provisions in the clean trucks plans of the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, including the controversial ban on independent drayage owner-operators at Los Angeles.

U.S. consumer confidence improved in April to the highest level since late last year, according to the Reuters/University of Michigan’s monthly consumer sentiment index released Friday.

Manufacturing in the U.S. improved last month but still showed overall contraction, the Institute for Supply Management said Friday.

Consumer personal spending fell in March after two months of growth, the Commerce Department said Thursday.

Oil closed the trading day Wednesday near $51 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange following an Energy Department report that showed gasoline inventories declined last week, Bloomberg reported.

Canadian transportation firm Mullen Group Income Fund said its first-quarter profit dropped 37.8% to C$31 million or 38 cents per unit, from C$49.8 million, or 62 cents per unit, a year ago.

The U.S. economy contracted at an annual rate of 6.1% rate in the first quarter, following the 6.3% downturn in the fourth quarter of last year, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.