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Prices paid to U.S. producers fell in April for the first time in four months, the Labor Department reported Friday.

Accelerating domestic demand pushed up first-quarter rail/truck shipments by 5.8% to 3.48 million, setting a record for the first three months of any year, the Intermodal Association of North America reported.

House and Senate negotiators assigned to produce a compromise joint highway bill met last week in their only public meeting before slipping behind closed doors to work out issues ranging from funding to construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline.

Congress should pass legislation to prohibit states from imposing business taxes on for-hire interstate carriers unless the carriers have real property in the state or received operating authority from it, American Trucking Associations told the U.S. Senate Finance Committee.

LAS VEGAS — Executives at Western Star Trucks, Daimler AG’s North American niche brand, want to boost U.S. heavy-duty market share toward the 3% level from its current neighborhood of 1.2%, hoping that its new 4700 and another model to come will increase sales toward that level.

Navistar has issued a recall for 21,831 International brand trucks to check for a possible defect that could cause an alternator cable to chafe and potentially lead to an electrical short.

CHENNAI, India — The world’s largest commercial vehicle maker, Daimler AG, is making one of its biggest-ever bets by pouring $850 million into production and sales operations here, in what is now the world’s fastest-growing market for trucks and buses.

ARLINGTON, Va. — American Trucking Associations President Bill Graves blasted federal lawmakers in a recent speech, telling an audience of a shippers’ association here that the upcoming election has halted the legislative process and Republicans’ pushes to decrease the federal role in transportation are missing the mark, among other criticisms.

Retail diesel prices declined for a fourth week, with the national average dipping 1.6 cents to $4.057 a gallon, the Department of Energy reported, while crude oil futures fell to the lowest levels in three months.

Royce Brooks, an experienced tank truck driver, was hauling gasoline to Lockhart, Texas, south of Austin, when a BMW driver blew through a stop sign and a flashing red light.