���ϳԹ���

Truck manufacturers received 23,200 new Class 8 orders in October, the highest monthly total since January, despite truck buyers’ ongoing concerns about the economy and the looming “fiscal cliff,” according to ACT Research.

Truckload carrier USA Truck said Robert Peiser has been appointed the company’s new chairman.

Canadian holding company Clarke Inc. posted a third-quarter profit, turning around a loss from a year ago.

Wholesale inventories increased 1.1% in September, the largest this year, while sales rose 2%, the Commerce Department said Friday.

Consumer confidence rose in November, according to the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index released Friday.

The price of goods imported to the United States rose in October for the third consecutive month, the Labor Department said Friday.

Transport Topics Online will be closed Monday for the Veterans Day holiday. Please check back on Tuesday, Nov. 13, for the latest trucking and freight transportation news.

This is in reference to a story headlined “Design Transportation Offers Higher Driver Pay, Bonuses,” which appeared in the Oct. 22 issue on p. 11.

Design Transportation Services, Dallas, has become the latest carrier to make a wide-ranging increase in driver pay as a step toward retaining and rewarding operators.

This column is an update of one I wrote for this publication a half-dozen years ago under the headline “Trucking Is Overtaxed” (2-6-06, p. 9). As the only slightly altered headline above says, taxes still cost the trucking industry far too much.