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A new diesel-emissions-reduction program at the Port of New York and New Jersey that will ban pre-1994 trucks beginning in 2011 will be costly and burdensome for motor carriers and comes at a time when fleets are reeling from the recession, state trucking officials said.

Manufacturers and their dealers sold 19.1% more big trucks in February than they did a year earlier, marking the second consecutive month in which Class 8 sales beat their year-ago totals, according to WardsAuto.com.

Many truckload fleets have almost overnight found themselves in a mini driver shortage, as demand for freight-hauling capacity is suddenly climbing in some markets and carriers expecting better times seek to put more trucks on the road.

The owners of more than two-thirds of the 2,200 new Class 8 trucks bought with the assistance of $20,000 each in Port of Los Angeles grants face financial penalties because their trucks will not make the required 300 gate moves during their first year of operation, port officials said.

Electronic onboard recorders should be mandatory for all truckers operating in North America, the president of the Canadian Trucking Alliance said.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said Friday that 74% of commercial truck and bus drivers are now using their safety belts, up from 65% in 2007.

Truck and engine manufacturer Navistar Inc. said Thursday it has received its first Environmental Protection Agency certification for one of its 2010 engines and expects certification for the rest in the coming “days and weeks.”

Schneider National said it has fitted about one-quarter of its 12,000 tractors with new onboard computers in a fleetwide rip-and-replace that, for the first time, will bring graphical navigation and electronic driver logs to every truck.