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Manufacturing activity in the Chicago improved in June but continued to show contraction, the Institute for Supply Chain Management-Chicago said Tuesday.

Over-the-highway trucks and buses with 2007 engine technology ran nearly 90% cleaner than required by federal emission standards for diesel particulate matter, the key pollutant targeted that year, a recent study has found.

YRC Worldwide Inc. and the Teamsters union planned to return to the bargaining table June 29 to pursue additional cost-cutting steps that would help the less-than-truckload carrier cope with current financial difficulties.

WASHINGTON — A key House subcommittee last week approved the framework for a new six-year surface transportation plan proposed by transportation committee leaders.

Drayage truckers are struggling with complex record-keeping requirements in the new federal intermodal chassis maintenance rules that have begun to take effect, industry experts said.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The U.S. trucking industry is falling behind its international counterparts in switching to higher-productivity vehicles

The world’s largest ocean container shipping company, Maersk Line, said it will begin charging leasing fees to local truckers who use their intermodal chassis, which traditionally have been free.

WASHINGTON — House transportation leaders appeared isolated last week, as several prominent senators endorsed a bid by the Obama administration to postpone working on a major surface transportation-funding bill until 2010.

There are some good safety points that should be considered, including a “graduated” commercial driver license, but it makes no sense for new CDL drivers to be transporting hazardous materials, oversize loads or double and triple trailers until they have accumulated 100,000 or more accident-free miles driving a commercial vehicle.

We need to be leery of the battle involving the Obama administration, the Senate and the House of Representatives over the direction of federal transportation policy out of concern that political bickering could delay necessary decisions and infrastructure projects.