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Air freight carriers appear to be pulling out of a steep dive caused by the global economic downturn over the past year, but company executives and industry observers said they expect the recovery to be slow and uneven.

Investor Warren Buffett made a dramatic bid to buy the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., the largest U.S. railroad, in a move valued at $44 billion and intended to capitalize on future economic growth and intermodal’s potential.

Carriers with multi-employer pension obligations would get as much as 30 years to restore full funding of currently underfunded plans, under legislation introduced by two members of Congress.

Five states have formed a coalition to seek a $300 million federal grant to help pay for intermodal development and improvements along the Norfolk Southern Railroad corridor that stretches from New Orleans to New York City.

FedEx Corp. said an Internal Revenue Service audit team has proposed that no assessment of federal employment taxes be made against the company’s ground parcel unit for 2002, an important step in FedEx’s continuing legal battle over whether some of its workers are independent contractors or employees.

Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee last week approved a cap-and-trade bill that opponents said would cause a spike in the cost of diesel fuel.

The sudden run-up of U.S. retail diesel fuel prices moderated last week, as the average price rose just 0.7 cent to $2.808 a gallon, the Department of Energy reported. Fleet executives, however, said the respite isn’t easing their cost pressures.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, in response to a legal challenge to the current hours-of-service regulations, will completely rewrite the 2008 HOS regulations, issue a proposed rulemaking within nine months and a new final rule in less than two years.