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The co-chairmen of a bipartisan presidential commission created to find ways to reduce the federal deficit last week called for gradually raising the federal fuel tax by 15 cents a gallon, beginning in 2013.

When the executive committee of the Tennessee Trucking Association gathers Dec. 7 for its first meeting since the November election, the conversation probably will mirror discussions among trucking leaders in states across the country.

Demand for logistics services is on the rise after falling sharply in 2009, as shippers look for ways to meet shifting market demand and deal with looming constraints in freight-hauling capacity.

Unfamiliar words such as “stability” and “price increases” are creeping into the less-than-truckload sector’s vocabulary these days, after a turbulent two years of rate cutting, market-share swings and some astronomical losses.

The U.S. retail diesel price average rose 4.9 cents to $3.116 last week, leaving trucking’s main fuel about a penny below its high point for the year, the Department of Energy said.

Intermodal shipments in the third quarter of 2010 erased recession-related volume losses, climbing 20% from a year ago as container shipments of imported goods surged, the Intermodal Association of North America reported.

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

Knight Transportation said it has declared a special cash dividend of 75 cents per share.

FedEx Corp. said it expects to handle 223.3 million items between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, an 11% increase over the same period last year.

The U.S. Postal Service lost $8.5 billion in its fiscal 2010, more than twice the loss of the last year, Bloomberg reported.