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House and Senate Appropriations funding leaders plan to unveil a fiscal 2015 omnibus spending bill soon — a measure backed by trucking leaders hoping to turn back a law regulating how long a driver can be behind the wheel.

Those sifting last week’s state election results for clues about the future of transportation issues may find more contradictions than answers.

Truck-driver training schools are the obvious place for fleets to look for new drivers, but the recruiting challenge for small trucking companies is being made more difficult by underwriter standards, insurance and fleet executives said.

New Class 8 truck orders skyrocketed in October to 46,200 units, the second-highest level recorded, as large fleets locked in 2015 build slots, ACT Research reported.

Truck tonnage in September held at an all-time high, rising 3.7% from a year earlier and capping the highest quarter on record, American Trucking Associations reported.

Orders for new Class 8 trucks jumped 32% in September from a year ago to 24,900, the highest September in eight years, ACT Research Co. reported.

Truckload driver turnover hit a two-year high on both a year-over-year and sequential basis in the second quarter, American Trucking Associations reported last week, as the migration to more attractive jobs inside and outside trucking accelerated.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is scheduled to publish a proposed rule in April that would drop a current requirement that insulin-treated interstate truck drivers with diabetes apply for a special exemption to be issued a medical certification card.