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Soaring prices for diesel fuel, rising maintenance costs and higher wages for drivers pushed the price of operating a truck up 12.7% in 2021 to $1.855 per mile — the highest level on record — according a report released Aug. 10 by the American Transportation Research Institute.

State taxes on diesel and gasoline in Georgia will continue to be suspended through Sept. 12 after Gov. Brian Kemp extended an expiring executive order issued earlier this year.

U.S. ports will see less retail cargo entering the country in the second half of the year as economic growth slows amid back-to-back interest rate increases and persistent inflation.

Oregon is asking for public input on a congestion pricing plan to impose tolls on all lanes of Portland’s two interstates that would result in commercial trucks paying higher rates than passenger vehicles.

The Surface Transportation Board’s Office of Environmental Analysis determined the only potential adverse impacts of Canadian Pacific’s proposed merger with Kansas City Southern would be train noise, according to the STB’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement released Aug. 5.

Labor Secretary Marty Walsh said he sees no signs of a strike or a lockout looming in the contract negotiations between dockworkers and employers at some of the nation’s most important ports, even as talks continue without a contract.

American Trucking Associations President Chris Spear said the trucking industry continues to show resilience despite challenges in the U.S. economy, marked by two straight quarters of negative gross domestic product and interest rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve that aim to slow decades-high rates of inflation.

Efforts are underway in federal and state-level prison systems to help inmates train for and transition into careers in trucking upon their release, with the Federal Bureau of Prisons expanding its commercial driver license programs to focus on women.

Canadian Pacific Railway posted a drop in net income but an increase in revenue for the second quarter, as it confronts renewed opposition to its planned acquisition of Kansas City Southern Railroad.

Legislation to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing while improving freight access along the nation’s supply chains was sent to President Joe Biden’s desk July 28.