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WASHINGTON — Congress may link any change in truck size- and-weight limits in upcoming highway legislation to a new commercial vehicle-miles-traveled tax, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), chairman of the House Highway and Transit Subcommittee, said last week.

Astronomic fuel prices are only part of the economic drag on trucking these days. Add the growing length of time on accounts receivables, more customer bankruptcies and the tightening of credit by suppliers and lenders, and it’s easy to see how carriers’ cash flow has ebbed.

Trucking-related highway fatalities fell again last year, to their lowest level in 15 years, according to data from the Department of Transportation.

A federal judge tentatively denied American Trucking Associations’ request for an injunction that would delay the start of concessionaire programs for drayage drivers at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

U.S. economic activity, including trucking and freight transportation, was sluggish in July and August, according to a Federal Reserve report released Wednesday.

The July truck tonnage report offered mixed signals about the industry and the U.S. economy, as American Trucking Associations’ index rose 4.4% from weak results a year earlier but declined 0.3% from the June totals.

China’s largest truck maker, Sinotruk, boosted a first-half profit 40% as consumers rushed to buy vehicles before the introduction of a new emissions regulation, Bloomberg reported Thursday.

A good rule of thumb is that you cannot appreciate truck drivers too much. But we’re convinced that expression of admiration for what America’s 3.5 million professional drivers accomplish on a daily basis carries a certain value.

The Transportation Security Administration for the first time has used a mobile X-ray machine capable of screening contents of large cargo containers to check trucks entering Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, the Associated Press reported.