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The new chairman of the pivotal House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Rep. James Oberstar, said he would support a pilot program to test the effects that raising truck size and weight limits would have on the nation’s highways.

Transportation stocks, including airlines, trucking companies and railroads, were among the hardest hit in Tuesday’s stock market tumble, the Associated Press reported.

WASHINGTON — Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), a key transportation legislator and a longtime opponent of increasing truck sizes and weights, told Transport Topics he would now support a pilot study of larger vehicles on U.S. highways.

Trucking executives said efforts to ban the use of cellular phones from the nation’s highways would receive industry support as long as state laws do not also ban two-way radios and satellite communication devices.

On Oct. 20, American Trucking Associations, in conjunction with “Road Safe America,” a group of nine trucking companies, submitted a petition to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted truck tonnage index fell 3.6% in January following an increase in December, ATA said Tuesday.

Tank truck carrier Quality Distribution’s fourth-quarter profit was $6.2 million or 31 cents a share, compared with $6.2 million or 32 cents for the previous fourth quarter.

Volkswagen AG has boosted its stake in German truck maker MAN AG to 29.9% from 20%, as part of an effort to create Europe’s largest truck maker in a combination including Swedish competitor Scania AB, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

The Ontario Trucking Association said Tuesday that an apparent diesel fuel shortage in the province was causing concern to truckers.

Rack-and-pinion steering, which has become commonplace in passenger vehicles and light trucks, is now getting its first trial in heavy-duty trucks.