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Earnings at publicly traded less-than-truckload companies took a beating in the first quarter, as carriers competed fiercely to wrest freight from a dwindling market still mired in recession, a review of the companies’ financial reports shows.

The Obama administration is continuing to work on a plan to restart cross-border trucking between the United States and Mexico, even as the two countries battle the spread of “swine flu.”

California environmental regulators have approved a new standard that will require a 10% reduction in the carbon content of transportation fuels by 2020 and encourage a transition to nonpetroleum-based fuels.

Navistar will deliver International ProStar sleepers and day cabs powered by 2010 Environmental Protection Agency-certified MaxxForce 13 big bore engines using exhaust gas recirculation technology.

Manufacturing in the U.S. improved last month but still showed overall contraction, the Institute for Supply Management said Friday.

Dynamex has lowered its earnings guidance for the 2009 fiscal year, saying that a downturn in shipping volumes will bring sales down.

U.S. consumer confidence improved in April to the highest level since late last year, according to the Reuters/University of Michigan’s monthly consumer sentiment index released Friday.

Truckload carrier P.A.M. Transportation Services reported a first-quarter loss of $3.4 million, or 36 cents per share, compared with a loss of $2.8 million, or 29 cents, a year ago.