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Seat belt use among drivers of medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles rose to 78% last year, from 74% in 2009, the fourth straight annual increase, according to a new Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration study.

Federal regulators have issued a proposed rule that would extend a ban on the use of handheld cellphones to include intrastate hazardous materials motor carriers.

The number of injuries in U.S. truck related accidents declined by 18% in 2009, according to new statistics compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Members of a key House panel began hearing proposals Tuesday from members of Congress about ways to fund a six-year highway reauthorization bill without exceeding Highway Trust Fund revenues that are mostly derived from federal gas and diesel taxes.

Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, told a group of shippers attending a Washington legislative policy forum Tuesday that he plans to get a long-term transportation reauthorization bill on the House floor sometime in May.

American Trucking Associations is “poised” to file a lawsuit against the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration if the agency adopts a proposed rule that would cut driver time to 10 hours a day, ATA Chairman Barbara Windsor said.

A bipartisan group of Senators has introduced a bill that would create a national infrastructure bank to issue loans and loan guarantees for transportation and other infrastructure projects of regional and national significance.

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) has introduced a bill that would require the Department of Transportation to study and establish a maximum number of hours that drivers may be detained at loading docks without being compensated.

A shipper group has expressed “profound disappointment” over a so-called fact-finding investigation by the Federal Maritime Commission into numerous U.S. importer and exporter complaints about “perceived malpractices” by ocean carriers that resulted in supply-chain service disruptions and rate and surcharge increases in late 2009 and 2010.