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The Truckload Carriers Association has voted to support the mandated use of “electronic logging devices” to ensure compliance with hours-of-service regulations.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will require all Mexican trucks entering the United States to be equipped with electronic onboard recorders — and will pay for them — an agency spokeswoman said last week.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has extended to May 23 the comment period on its proposed onboard electronic recorder mandate.

The National Truck Equipment Association installed Steven Sill, president of the Aspen Equipment Co., as its new president, replacing Allen Birmingham.

TAMPA — “If you’d have told me 20 years ago I’d be general chairman, I’d have told you you was crazy,” said Roy Gambrell, incoming general chairman of the Technology & Maintenance Council, who began his career repairing equipment on the family farm.

The U.S. Class 8 truck fleet appears to have halted a lengthy decline, according to new registration data for the last quarter of 2010, and fleet executives, truck dealers and analysts all said vehicle sales should continue to rise.

The retread business is booming at Snider Tire Inc. — so much so that the Greensboro, N.C., company is building a sixth plant to fulfill its half-million yearly orders for Michelin retreads.

Manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia region improved in February month for a fifth straight month, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said Thursday.

January orders for new Class 8 trucks skyrocketed 320% to 27,000 from the year-ago level, a clear sign that the industry will enjoy a stronger 2011, two research organizations said last week.

The 700-member Truckload Carriers Association plans to oppose a proposed federal mandate requiring the use of electronic onboard recorders because there is no evidence that the technology will improve highway safety, the association’s president said.