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RALEIGH, N.C. — The federal stopping-distance rule announced in late July will generate lots of technical choices for truck buyers, but manufacturing executives told fleet managers here the engineering changes should be minimally disruptive.

Sales of new heavy-duty trucks in the United States fell 33.3% in August from year-ago levels, the eighth consecutive monthly decline.

President Obama has approved an increase on the tariff charged on car and light truck tires imported from China, the Associated Press reported.

President Obama must decide by Sept. 17 whether to accept the recommendation of the U.S. International Trade Commission to impose tariffs on passenger and light-truck tires made in China, the second-largest U.S. trading partner.

While sales of new Class 8 trucks continue to languish, several used truck dealers said they have noted recent “sporadic” increases in business that they believe could signal a market bottom. However, they added that financing problems were restricting sales.

The number of Class 8 vehicles operating in the United States totaled 3.641 million units in the second quarter, an increase of less than 1% over the same quarter in 2008, transportation research firm R.L. Polk & Co. said.

Truck component maker Eaton Corp. said that it would provide the electric power systems for 378 Class 5 electric hybrid plug-in vehicles under a federal grant, which it called the “largest commercial hybrid deployment” ever.

Future U.S. economic vitality depends on an adequately funded rural road system that can accommodate heavier trucks, a South Dakota trucking company president told a Senate committee last week.

Manufacturer ArvinMeritor Inc. said it lost $162 million in the April-to-June quarter, while also announcing last week it has found a buyer for its light-vehicle wheels business and has stepped up its marketing effort for truck disc and drum brakes ahead of the government’s new truck stopping-distance rule.