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WASHINGTON — A federal move to cut truck drivers’ working hours would be very costly and exacerbate a shortage of drivers, while putting more trucks on the road, a panel of industry executives told Congress last week.

House Transportation Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) said last week that he would not introduce a transportation reauthorization bill until next year, dashing hopes of proponents to get a bill through to replace the funding that expired in 2009.

Chrysler Group LLC and Nissan Motor Co. led automakers in U.S. November sales gains as the industry headed for its best sales pace this year, Bloomberg reported.

The unemployment rate dropped in November to 8.6%, the lowest in more than two and a half years, while the economy added 120,000 jobs, including 3,600 trucking jobs, the Labor Department said Friday.

U.S. retail diesel prices slipped back below $4 a gallon last week, but the 4.6-cent decline in the national average price provided little comfort to truckers who are still paying 80 cents more a gallon than they were at this time last year.

Advanced transportation management systems (TMS) have long provided automation and functionality that help plan, optimize, manage and execute transportation more accurately and productively than — to be blunt — a human being.

U.S.-based freight railroads and their major customers, including intermodal fleets, raced last week to prepare for what could be the first nationwide rail strike in two decades as soon as Dec. 6.

The regulation banning truck drivers from using handheld phones while they drive will take effect Jan. 3, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said Friday.

A lack of information-sharing between two Department of Transportation agencies with safety responsibilities is jeopardizing the safety of hazardous materials shipments, the head of the freight brokers’ trade association said.