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Oil closed below $80 for the first time in more than a year Friday, amid commodity price declines and worldwide economic uncertainty, Bloomberg reported.

It’s another sticky-hot summer day in Grammer, Ind., population 138, and the owner of the only business in town is talking a mile a minute, his twangy Hoosier voice drowning out the eerie silence of the corn and soybean fields surrounding a gravel lot filled with rows of shiny tank trailers.

NEW ORLEANS — American Trucking Associations leaders endorsed a sweeping, 18-point plan to improve highway safety for everyone — passenger cars, as well as trucks — as part of the federation’s strategy for next year’s highway legislation.

Business inventories rose 0.8% in August, the Commerce Department said Thursday.

New Jersey officials have scaled back proposals to drastically increase tolls on the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway, offering a new plan that includes discounts for trucks, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

American Trucking Associations said its board of directors has voted to expand ATA’s safety agenda with the goal of further reducing the number of highway-related fatalities.

UPS Freight said Wednesday it has sped up transit schedules on more than 1,900 traffic lanes in eight western states, marking the final phase of its 2008 network enhancements.

As we gather in New Orleans for our 2008 Management Conference & Exhibition, it’s hard not to think back to the images of the “Crescent City” in 2005 following Hurricane Katrina. In a matter of hours, New Orleans went from a vibrant tourism destination to a city devastated by flooding.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration sent regulations aimed at strengthening oversight of new trucking companies and of intermodal chassis equipment to the White House for review, putting the regulations on pace to be published before the end of the year.