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President Obama signed into law a financial reform bill that includes provisions aimed at reducing speculative trading in commodities such as crude oil and diesel fuel and limiting the fees that credit-card companies can charge merchants for their services.

Seven of the eight publicly traded motor carriers that reported second-quarter earnings last week reinforced the trend of improved financial results driven by tight capacity, along with modest rate, volume and utilization improvements.

UPS Inc. “fired on all cylinders” in the second quarter, boosting profits and firming rates, despite spottiness in the global economic recovery, Chief Executive Officer Scott Davis said July 22.

Truckers in New Jersey using two-way radios are now exempted from the state’s ban on driving while using handheld communication devices.

Truckload carrier Swift Transportation could be returning to the ranks of the publicly traded trucking companies, according to a registration statement filed last week, a move that could allow the sale of as much as $700 million in stock.

Two more of the world’s five largest shipping companies announced plans to gradually pull out of the U.S. chassis supply business just as new federal chassis safety rules are being implemented.

For more than 15 years, Just Born Inc., the Pennsylvania candy maker of Peeps and of Mike and Ike, transported newly made confections from its Bethlehem plant to two warehouses 75 miles away.

U.S. retail diesel prices dipped 0.4 cent last week to $2.899 a gallon, the ninth decrease in the national fuel average during the past 10 weeks, the Department of Energy reported.

Navistar Inc. attacked competitors’ 2010 engines on two fronts last week, telling environmental regulators that pollution controls on engines using selective catalytic reduction could be easily defeated and telling fleet managers that every gallon of diesel fuel an SCR engine saves will cost at least that much in diesel exhaust fluid consumed.

The number of fleets that raised driver pay in the second quarter increased sharply, and continuing difficulties in attracting new drivers could spark another round of increases in the third quarter, several industry experts have said.