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The Department of Transportation’s inspector general said the federal agency needs to work with Congress to develop a plan to fund the nation’s surface transportation network.

As customers seek ways to cut expenses and reduce their carbon footprint through the supply chain, warehouse operators are taking their own steps to trim energy use, optimize loads and automate processes.

Registrations of new trailers in the United States are running at less than half of last year’s pace, nearly ensuring that 2009 will be the worst 12 months for trailer sales since at least 1975.

The average price of U.S. retail dipped 1.2 cents to $2.775 a gallon last week, the fourth straight decline. The fuel, however, remains just 3.3 cents below the high for the year, the Department of Energy reported.

U.S. factory orders rose for the sixth time in seven months in October, the Commerce Department said Friday.

The U.S. economy’s service sector contracted last month, the Institute for Supply Management said Thursday.

Canadian federal and local authorities have green-lighted environmental plans for the Detroit River International Crossing project, part of a plan for a new proposed bridge crossing between the U.S. and Canada.

A five-day strike by the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference against Canadian National Railway ended Wednesday as negotiations resumed between the parties.

Air and freight forwarder UTi Worldwide reported a decline in net income and revenue for its fiscal third quarter.

U.S. workers’ productivity surged in the third quarter to an annual rate of 8.1%, increasing at the fastest in six years, the Labor Department said Thursday.