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LOUISVILLE, Ky. — With sales of heavy trucks expected to drop sharply from last year, OEMs and suppliers at the Mid-America Trucking Show shifted tactics, emphasizing new features and markets in an effort to keep customers interested.

The Senate Appropriations Committee Thursday approved an amendment that would prevent Mexican trucking companies from gaining unrestricted access to U.S. highways until American truckers are afforded the same access in Mexico.

Garner Transportation Group co-founder and former American Trucking Associations Chairman Vernon Eugene Garner died Tuesday, following a lengthy bout with cancer. He was 69.

It seemed like such a simple and logical plan: As the nations of North America removed obstacles to the free flow of goods between them, the barriers impeding the trucks that move those goods also would be torn down.

Kentucky Eyes Higher Speed Limits • Penske Has Trained 15,000 Drivers Under Highway Watch Program • Colorado to Spend $1.2 Mln. for Truck ‘Chain-Up’ Spaces

WASHINGTON — Trucking and law enforcement groups said a recent report claiming the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has failed to ensure trucking safety was unproductive and poorly researched.

NEW ORLEANS — Sophisticated recording devices built into modern trucks and diesel engines can generate information that plaintiff’s attorneys can use to force fleets and their insurance companies to pay massive settlement claims.

Truck maker Volvo AB said its sales for the first two months of the year fell 13%, as U.S. deliveries plunged following new emissions standards that boosted truck prices, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

For decades, diesel engines — prized for their durability and pulling power — have dominated broad segments of the heavy truck and equipment markets. As gasoline prices rose in the 1970s, diesels made quick inroads in light-duty markets as well.

WASHINGTON — Legislation proposed last week could allow federal weight limits for trucks to rise to 97,000 pounds and for the first time set fuel-efficiency standards for trucks.