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Crude oil futures hit a 19-month low price, closing at $54.02 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Wednesday following a Department of Energy report showing strong heating-oil inventories, Bloomberg reported.

Wachovia Capital Markets upgraded the U.S. trucking sector to “market weight” from “underweight,” citing opportunities for investors to be more constructive ahead of the next upturn, Reuters reported.

Several people who obtained commercial driver’s licenses from a southern Missouri trucking school gave false home addresses, and state officials acknowledge they currently have no way to stop the practice, the Associated Press reported.

When Foodliner Inc., a liquid and dry-bulk carrier based in Dubuque, Iowa, put in a mobile communications system to track the location of its trucks and monitor the performance of its drivers, corporate controller Tom Stueck said he expected some resistance.

Canadian transportation firm TransForce Income Fund said Thursday it completed its acquisition of Westfreight Systems and Westfreight Holdings (U.S.A.). Terms were not disclosed.

Engine manufacturers and trucking officials said they recognize the need for onboard diagnostic systems to monitor the performance of emission-treatment systems because diesel engines are growing in complexity.

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The Department of Transportation went from being “very close” to opening the border with Mexico to trucks, to preparing a pilot project to allow such trucks to enter the country, to having the border shuttered indefinitely to Mexican truck traffic.

Fargo, N.D., trucking firm Lewis Transportation, which has employees in at least seven states, is shutting down after 43 years of operation, the Associated Press reported.

Diesel engine manufacturer Cummins Inc. said late Tuesday that the Environmental Protection Agency has certified the company’s medium- and heavy-duty truck engines for 2007.