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Royce Brooks, an experienced tank truck driver, was hauling gasoline to Lockhart, Texas, south of Austin, when a BMW driver blew through a stop sign and a flashing red light.

The decline in truck orders — including the 55% drop last month compared with a year ago and declines in the previous three months — represents a “pause” in the fleet replenishment process rather than a sign of fundamental market weakness, several analysts and dealers have said.

SAN FRANCISCO — Two of trucking’s leading economists said last week the industry’s economic recovery was well under way and should continue for at least several more years.

Navistar has issued a recall for 21,831 International brand trucks to check for a possible defect that could cause an alternator cable to chafe and potentially lead to an electrical short.

LAS VEGAS — Executives at Western Star Trucks, Daimler AG’s North American niche brand, want to boost U.S. heavy-duty market share toward the 3% level from its current neighborhood of 1.2%, hoping that its new 4700 and another model to come will increase sales toward that level.

Congress should pass legislation to prohibit states from imposing business taxes on for-hire interstate carriers unless the carriers have real property in the state or received operating authority from it, American Trucking Associations told the U.S. Senate Finance Committee.

House and Senate negotiators assigned to produce a compromise joint highway bill met last week in their only public meeting before slipping behind closed doors to work out issues ranging from funding to construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline.

Accelerating domestic demand pushed up first-quarter rail/truck shipments by 5.8% to 3.48 million, setting a record for the first three months of any year, the Intermodal Association of North America reported.

Retail diesel prices declined for a fourth week, with the national average dipping 1.6 cents to $4.057 a gallon, the Department of Energy reported, while crude oil futures fell to the lowest levels in three months.

The American Transportation Research Institute last week released findings from the first phase of its three-part research effort aimed at mitigating large truck rollovers.