���ϳԹ���

WASHINGTON — Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), author of the rules Congress set for opening the U.S. border to Mexican trucks, told Transportation Secretary Mary Peters she suspected the agency may be stacking the deck in its recently announced pilot program.

FMCSA Names Safety Committees • Highway Watch Debuts Online Training • Insurance Co. Not Liable in Conn. Crash

A coalition of trucking safety groups issued a report this week giving poor grades to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for failing to do enough to reduce large truck-related fatalities.

Safety-watchdog group Public Citizen said Tuesday it sued the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on behalf of a highway safety organization to compel the agency to release information about recent decision to allow Mexican trucks onto U.S. highways.

Interpool Inc., a maker of shipping containers and chassis for intermodal container transportation, reported its 2006 net income rose, in part due to the sale of its container operating lease fleet.

The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed for the first time sharp cuts in exhaust emissions from railroad locomotive and marine engines in a plan a spokesman said would “follow exactly the same pattern” as environmental regulations for truck engines.

Canada-based transportation firm Trimac Income Fund earned C$3.1 million or 8 cents per unit in the fourth quarter, down from C$5.7 million or 13 cents a year earlier.

The number of heavy-duty trucks in use in the United States increased 5.2% to 3.51 million Class 8 commercial vehicles last year, as fleet owners stocked up on new trucks and kept more old vehicles in service, market research firm R.L. Polk & Co. said.

The Department of Transportation issued a reminder that starting in 2007, daylight-saving time will begin three weeks earlier, starting this weekend.

Truck drivers need greater flexibility within federal driver work and rest rules to allow them to select sleep times and duration based on individual need, according to a study released jointly by American Trucking Associations and a sleep research firm.