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While the trucking industry waits for the Obama administration to complete its review of a new hours-of-service proposal, executives with some of the nation’s largest fleets warned that a cut in driving time would result in higher consumer costs, reduced efficiency and increased pollution.

Requiring stability control systems to be installed on all heavy-duty trucks would prevent nearly 3,500 rollovers, save 106 lives and eliminate nearly 4,400 injuries in the United States every year, a top federal highway official said last week.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood encouraged the nation’s safest truck drivers to play an active role in combating distracted driving. “Distracted driving is an epidemic in America,” LaHood said in a speech Aug. 5 during the National Truck Driving Championships.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said last week it is changing how it targets trucking companies for enforcement based on a study of its new CSA safety-monitoring program.

Second-quarter earnings reports from the less-than-truckload sector show a tepid recovery compared with truckload companies, although executives said tightening truckload supply could divert freight into LTL terminals.

Fortunately, some companies are slowly waking to the fact that untreated sleep apnea presents higher risks for their organization, and they are creating proactive programs to address the issue.

Kudos to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for agreeing to alter its CSA safety program in light of research showing there may not be a strong correlation between certain violations and the rate of accidents.

UPS Inc. plans to open two health-care-logistics hubs in Singapore and China to tap rising regional demand for medical devices and drugs, Bloomberg reported Friday.

Navistar Inc.’s top executive and its former finance chief will return more than $2 million in bonus pay to the company as part of a deal to settle federal charges of accounting misconduct.

Initial jobless claims hit a three-month high last week, the Labor Department said Thursday.