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The U.S. retail diesel fuel average dropped 4.2 cents last week to $2.045 a gallon, as the price in the Midwest fell below $2, the first time that has occurred anywhere in more than four years, the Department of Energy reported.

The new chairman of the Technology & Maintenance Council, Steph Sabo, said that during his term, his top priority will be reaching out to segments of the trucking industry that aren’t familiar with the group in hopes of signing up new members.

For the third time in five years, a coalition of interest groups has asked a federal court to overturn the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s rule governing the length of time truckers can drive and work.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last week took the first step toward creating a national cap-and-trade system, proposing a new rule that would establish a federal system for reporting carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases produced by large stationary and mobile sources.

In its continued attack on greenhouse gas emissions, the California Air Resources Board recently proposed a rule cutting the “carbon intensity” of transportation fuels.

Canada-based transportation firm Trimac Income Fund said its fourth-quarter profit rose to C$3 million, or 11 cents per unit, from C$2.2 million, or 9 cents, a year ago.

Hispanics have responded to the need of U.S. carriers for longhaul truck drivers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported that in 2007, 23% of the estimated 1.6 million tractor-trailer drivers in the United States were Hispanic.

U.S. consumer confidence rose slightly this month, but still remains near a 28-year low, according to the Reuters/University of Michigan’s preliminary monthly consumer sentiment index released Friday.

The price of goods imported to the United States fell for a seventh straight month in February on lower commodity costs, declining 1.1%, the Labor Department said Friday.