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This week’s issue of Transport Topics includes some interesting news about the federal government’s new safety regime for trucking, Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010, including that the program is going to be renamed.

The long-awaited new federal chassis safety rules take effect June 30, but officials said questions remain about damage reports truckers must file to keep equipment in roadworthy shape.

Catching employers who misclassify their employees as independent contractors would help ensure a “level playing field in the marketplace,” a top official with the U.S. Department of Labor told a Senate committee.

A coalition of interest groups that has repeatedly succeeded in challenging the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s hours-of-service rule last week pushed for dramatically cutting the current daily and weekly work-time limits.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration remains “absolutely” committed to the current timeline for rolling out CSA 2010, Administrator Anne Ferro said.

Detroit Diesel Corp. said it will spend $194 million to renovate its 72-year-old Redford, Mich., plant, the latest example of truck makers pouring investments into diesel engine facilities to manufacture the complicated new power plants and vertically integrate production.

Retail diesel prices reversed course last week, as the national average rose 3.3 cents a gallon to $2.961 after falling 19.9 cents in the five previous weeks, the Department of Energy reported.

Consumer confidence rose this month to the highest level in more than two years, according to the latest Reuters/University of Michigan monthly consumer sentiment index released Friday.

The gross domestic product growth rate for the first quarter was revised down for a second time Friday, to an rate of 2.7%, the Commerce Department said Friday.

The past 10 months have seen a precipitous decline in the quality of driver applicants. There are recruiters everywhere saying, “Good applicants are getting scarce.”