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Nearly 100 technicians will compete for national honors in truck maintenance next week in Raleigh, N.C., while fleet maintenance directors examine the details of the new federal CSA program, diesel particulate filters and the economic forecast for freight hauling.

Truck drivers who participated in a test of a five-year, mostly federally funded program to develop integrated crash warning systems said the prototype technology helped them avoid accidents, but they said the frequent false alarms were “annoyances.”

Trade groups representing the food, shipping and trucking industries have voiced caution and opposition to a plan by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to create a potentially sweeping array of regulations governing safe food transportation practices.

NEW YORK — Railroads large and small gave investors two consistent messages — economic growth will be slow but steady, and they will continue their commitment to investing in new projects such as freight corridors.

New orders for Class 8 trucks in North America climbed sharply in August, two commercial vehicle research companies said in preliminary reports.

Truck and engine maker Navistar Inc. has begun shipping 2010-compliant heavy-duty engines, including more than 225 tractors with its 13-liter MaxxForce engines, the company said.

Mexico has continued its side of the cross-border trucking pilot program begun in 2007, although the United States ended its participation and has denied Mexican trucks authority to deliver to U.S. destinations, a Mexican official said.

RICHMOND, Va. — People in trucking have long viewed themselves as a collection of hardworking individuals — and there are plenty of stories to support that belief. But who among them has worked harder and longer than J. Harwood Cochrane, founder of the highly successful Overnite Transportation Co. at age 22 and the more middling Highway Express at age 78?

President Obama proposed a transportation infrastructure plan last week, including a call for a one-time $50 billion federal investment and the creation of an infrastructure bank.

Diesel prices dipped for the fourth consecutive week, as the U.S. retail price average slipped 0.7 cent a gallon to $2.931 from the week before, the Department of Energy reported.