91ÊÓƵ

November trailer orders climbed 16.7% from a year earlier to 25,670 as the U.S. economy continued to improve, yielding the strongest monthly total in nearly a year, ACT Research reported.

It many ways, 2013 was a good year for American Trucking Associations.

The biggest change in transportation at the federal level this year came when Anthony Foxx took over as secretary of transportation in July.

Some $13.6 trillion worth of goods were shipped in the United States in 2012 weighing a combined 11.7 billion tons, with trucks once again doing a majority of the work, according to a federal report.

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators led by Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) introduced legislation to create a $10 billion infrastructure bank that would use loans and loan guarantees to encourage private investment in transportation projects.

Pennsylvania state lawmakers gave final approval Nov. 21 to a transportation spending bill that will raise $2.4 billion more annually for the state’s roads, bridges and transit systems.

Trucking companies using the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Pre-Employment Screening Program reduced their crash rates by 15%, with midsize carriers seeing even greater improvements, according to a recent FMCSA study.

U.S. workers’ productivity rose at a 1.9% annual rate in the third quarter, the Labor Department reported.