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The American Transportation Research Institute this week released its annual survey to gauge the trucking industry’s top concerns.

New legislation aimed at giving ports more authority to set environmental regulations is expanding the battle over the Port of Los Angeles’ controversial employees-only clean trucks plan from the courts to Congress.

Requiring stability control systems to be installed on all heavy-duty trucks would prevent nearly 3,500 rollovers, save 106 lives and eliminate nearly 4,400 injuries in the United States every year, a top federal highway official said last week.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood encouraged the nation’s safest truck drivers to play an active role in combating distracted driving. “Distracted driving is an epidemic in America,” LaHood said in a speech Aug. 5 during the National Truck Driving Championships.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said last week it is changing how it targets trucking companies for enforcement based on a study of its new CSA safety-monitoring program.

Fortunately, some companies are slowly waking to the fact that untreated sleep apnea presents higher risks for their organization, and they are creating proactive programs to address the issue.

Kudos to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for agreeing to alter its CSA safety program in light of research showing there may not be a strong correlation between certain violations and the rate of accidents.

I have been following with interest the published articles covering the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s new CSA program. The articles include a front-page story in the June 28 edition of this newspaper headlined “CSA Training Could Affect O-Os, Some Industry Officials Worry.”

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has proposed a rule that would eliminate requirements for special permits to haul some hazmats, ranging from liquefied petroleum gas to anhydrous ammonia fertilizers.