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The U.S. economy grew at a rate of 2.2% in the fourth quarter, the Commerce Department said Wednesday, in lowering its earlier estimate of 3.5%.

Transportation stocks, including airlines, trucking companies and railroads, were among the hardest hit in Tuesday’s stock market tumble, the Associated Press reported.

WASHINGTON — Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), a key transportation legislator and a longtime opponent of increasing truck sizes and weights, told Transport Topics he would now support a pilot study of larger vehicles on U.S. highways.

Trucking executives said efforts to ban the use of cellular phones from the nation’s highways would receive industry support as long as state laws do not also ban two-way radios and satellite communication devices.

On Oct. 20, American Trucking Associations, in conjunction with “Road Safe America,” a group of nine trucking companies, submitted a petition to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

UPS Inc. said Wednesday that almost 200 of its employees accepted a voluntary early-retirement buyout package that will cost the company about $80 million.

American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted truck tonnage index fell 3.6% in January following an increase in December, ATA said Tuesday.

Retail diesel fuel’s national average price rose for a fourth straight week, jumping 6 cents to $2.551 a gallon, the Department of Energy said Monday.

Tank truck carrier Quality Distribution’s fourth-quarter profit was $6.2 million or 31 cents a share, compared with $6.2 million or 32 cents for the previous fourth quarter.

Volkswagen AG has boosted its stake in German truck maker MAN AG to 29.9% from 20%, as part of an effort to create Europe’s largest truck maker in a combination including Swedish competitor Scania AB, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.