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Choosing computers for mechanics to use in the maintenance shop requires a fleet — be it municipal or over-the-road — to weigh factors ranging from the mundane to the highbrow.

New Class 8 truck orders in North America jumped more than 200% in February to about 24,000 units, the fourth month in a row of 24,000 orders or more, market researchers ACT Research Co. and FTR Associates said in separate reports.

The federal standard for underride guards on trucks and trailers is inadequate and should be upgraded to protect the drivers of vehicles that crash into the rear of trucks, an insurance safety advocacy group said last week.

TAMPA — “If you’d have told me 20 years ago I’d be general chairman, I’d have told you you was crazy,” said Roy Gambrell, incoming general chairman of the Technology & Maintenance Council, who began his career repairing equipment on the family farm.

U.S. retail fuel prices shot up last week as petroleum closed above $100 a barrel for the first time since September 2008 and as unrest in Libya and the Middle East left people in trucking wondering how high prices might go and how long they might stay there.

Truck driver training schools face a potentially crippling loss of revenue following a vote in Congress that could eliminate federal funding of job training grants.

The U.S. and Mexico agreed last week on a deal that would allow Mexican trucks to deliver to destinations in the United States and lead Mexico to drop $2.4 billion a year in retaliatory tariffs it has imposed on U.S. products.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has begun sending an initial batch of 23,000 Compliance, Safety, Accountability program warning letters to fleets as the agency begins concrete interventions in its new program.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has cast a spotlight on the current federal standard for truck underride guards, which it says is woefully inadequate.

Not all truckers are the longhaul, cross-country, gone-way-too-long operators everyone seems to see in their mind’s eye. However, the proposals FMCSA has had to come up with now to fix a system that works well affects all drivers.