Safety

Hino Motors Ltd., Japan’s largest maker of heavy-duty trucks, saw its fiscal third-quarter profit drop 45% as the company spent more to develop new models and expand production, Bloomberg reported.

Click here to write a Letter to the Editor.WASHINGTON — Shippers would like to see a switch to larger trucks, and U.S. safety inspectors monitoring size-and-weight rules could have more technology at their disposal in the coming years, according to a Transportation Research Board panel discussion here.

The Surface Transportation Board ruled that freight railroads not calculate their fuel surcharges as a percentage of their base rates.

Transportation and logistics firm C.H. Robinson Worldwide's 2006 net income rose to $266.9 million or $1.53 a share, up from $203.4 million or $1.16 in 2005.

Transportation firm Con-way Inc. earned $82.4 million or $1.66 a share in the fourth quarter, up from $49.9 million or 90 cents a year earlier.

Automobile carrier Performance Transportation Services said late Monday it emerged from its voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding.

Tank truck carrier Quality Distribution lowered its earnings guidance for the fourth quarter and full-year 2006, due to lower seasonal demand.

The president of trucking software provider TMW Systems said he does not expect a slowdown in sales this year, even as some trucking companies face a downturn in demand for freight-hauling services.

The maintenance managers of two vehicle leasing companies expect few problems in their shops as the truck-operating industry shifts to the next generation of lower-emission diesel engines.

American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted truck tonnage index jumped 3.9% in December, following a 3.6% downturn in November.