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American Trucking Associations Monday called on Congress to increase the transparency of commodities futures markets and impose “reasonable aggregate position limits on energy commodities,” in an effort to stem the price spikes and record high prices of last summer.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has approved legislation that would open more of the eastern Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling, Bloomberg reported.

Volvo Trucks North America said that it has chosen Terra Environmental Technologies to supply its dealers with retail-size containers of diesel exhaust fluid and to put the company’s product in new Volvo trucks.

The Massachusetts Senate has approved a transportation reform bill that would avoid a planned toll increase in tolls and would abolish the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority by the end of the year, the Associated Press reported.

I know we’re in a national recession, money and credit are very tight and the banks are hogging all the money and have put wicked restrictions on everyone’s cash flow. But despite these money problems, third-party people seem to expect the trucks they hire to run for nearly free — especially when it comes to hauling overdimensional freight.

The use of diesel fuel has fallen sharply as freight levels have nose-dived during the global recession. The home-heating oil season has ended, so there is no competition for the distillate both heating oil and diesel are made from.

The Truck Manufacturers Association elected Volvo Trucks North America’s Skip Yeakel as TMA’s new chairman.

YRC Worldwide last week said it has reached an agreement with the largest pension fund that pays benefits to YRC’s unionized employees. The agreement allows the company to defer $83 million in second-quarter pension payments while it provides real estate as collateral.