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Consumer confidence increased this month, according to the monthly Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index released Wednesday.

The costs of a proposed federal rule expected to prohibit the transportation of flammable liquids in unprotected product piping on tank trucks would far outweigh the benefits, a trucking industry delegation told White House officials last week.

Three trucking trade groups plan to file a lawsuit to block the release of trucking companies’ CSA safety performance data to the public this week, claiming that the action violates regulatory procedure, parties to the action said.

Shippers are making heavy use of the truckload spot market to find freight haulers, leading to more loads and better rates — particularly for flatbed and refrigerated carriers — and worries for brokers who find themselves “under water” on some contracts with shippers.

Managers of large fleets want to buy improved equipment and advanced technologies despite the recent recession but are insisting upon payback periods of four years or less, according to a recent survey.

An Arkansas committee that spent two years studying how to pay for road improvements has come up with a list of ways to raise revenue that includes indexing gas and diesel taxes to the state’s construction cost index.

Trucking industry officials said they question whether the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will be able to complete its work on a new hours-of-service rule in time to comply with a court order.

Several bills introduced in Congress that would affect the trucking industry remain in limbo as the current “lame-duck” Congress races to finish its business by year-end, experts said.

Trucking officials said efforts to enact federal legislation protecting carriers from overreaching indemnification provisions in shipper contracts were likely to be the industry’s primary tort reform push in the coming year.

The world of drayage carriers has certainly changed since motor carriers finally convinced the federal government to establish that it was the owners of freight container chassis who are legally responsible for their maintenance. But the change has not at all come in the ways most fleets expected.