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Some law enforcement officials in Florida have launch-ed an offensive against cargo theft and hope that federal authorities and those in other states would join them.

Light sweet crude oil futures hit a near-record $55.45 in intraday trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange before receding to close at $55.05 a barrel, Bloomberg reported.

Heating-oil futures fell Monday in intraday trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange after Saudi Arabia signaled it may call for higher OPEC production at Wednesday’s meeting of the cartel’s ministers, Bloomberg reported.

Despite big investments in security, the U.S. aviation system is vulnerable to terrorist attacks, the New York Times reported Monday.

The House of Representatives approved changes to the federal hours-of-service rules for truck drivers and eliminated some legal liability for truck and car rental companies as part of a series of amendments passed during the first day of its debate on the multiyear highway bill.

LAS VEGAS — Several information technology companies that provide software, tracking and communications systems to the trucking industry said their sales and orders increased sharply last year and were headed even higher in 2005.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. and Union Pacific Corp., the two biggest U.S. railroads, may beat analysts' first-quarter earnings forecasts after shipments of consumer goods and coal surged in February, analysts told Bloomberg News.

Officials at J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. told the Associated Press the United States needs more intermodal terminals.

American Trucking Associations said in a filing with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration that current driver hours-of-service regulations “should remain essentially intact.”

Consumer confidence rose by the largest amount in seven months in early March, the Associated Press reported Friday.