ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø

ORLANDO, Fla. — Kevin Knight, chief executive officer of Knight Transportation, touted trucking’s efforts in recent years to become more environmentally friendly, and said the industry should work to improve its green message to the public.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Fleet executives complained bluntly about what they said were padded bills for repair services, unreliable estimates and failures by service operators to offer realistic completion times.

ARLINGTON, Va. — A top Navistar Inc. official said the company is pursuing its own solution to meet the 2010 U.S. emission standards, because it doesn’t believe the fuel savings claimed by competitors will justify the higher costs and more complicated systems associated with the new engines.

Driven by a freight-scarce economy, abundant fuel inventories and predictions of continuing economic distress, the average price of U.S. retail diesel drifted down another 2.7 cents a gallon to $2.219 last week, its fourth straight decline and the 28th in the past 30 weeks.

Congress late last week was poised to pass a $789 billion economic stimulus package, which included less guaranteed funding for roads and bridges than industry officials had hoped for, but it also contained money for diesel engine retrofits and a tax break for buying new equipment.

Two key safety indicators improved to their best-ever levels during 2007, according to data just released by the Department of Transportation and analyzed by Transport Topics.

Retail sales rose 1% in January, halting a six-month slide, the Commerce Department said Thursday.

Business inventories fell 1.3% in December, the fourth consecutive month of decline and the largest drop since 2001, the Commerce Department said Thursday.

Oil prices fell to near a five-year low Thursday, dropping almost $2 to below $34 a barrel as inventories rose to a seven-year high, Bloomberg reported.