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Unified Carrier Registration program fees will remain unchanged in 2013, and the organization will seek to collect the fees from more interstate carriers, forwarders and brokers, the group’s chairman said.

Third-quarter earnings statements of less-than-truckload carriers issued last week generally followed an industrywide pattern of mixed results, with some seeing solid gains in profitability but others reporting significant earnings drop-offs.

More than 426,000 commercial motor carriers have enrolled in the PrePass weigh station safety screening system, an all-time high level of participation, HELP Inc., PrePass’ service provider, said Tuesday.

The federal government should electronically screen trucking companies’ data to find potential reincarnated carriers when they apply, and then investigate those applicants, according to a new Government Accountability Office report.

Trucking industry, government and safety representatives told a Senate panel that federal regulators could improve motor carrier safety by raising the bar for new carriers entering the industry, among other policy changes.

SAN DIEGO — An industry consensus appears to be emerging in support of electronic logging devices to monitor driver hours but not truck performance, as the Truckload Carriers Association endorsed that technology last week and American Trucking Associations moved in the same direction.

Gary Salisbury, president and CEO of Fikes Truck Line, Hope, Ark., was elected chairman of the Truckload Carriers Association for 2011-2012 at TCA’s annual meeting in San Diego.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the Transportation Security Administration have conducted several dozen overlapping fleet inspections, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report about wasteful and duplicative federal programs.

For shippers, ultimately, their choice of carrier will be translated either into greater company profitability — or a balance sheet splattered with red ink.