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The second major snowstorm in a week hit the Northern Plains with more than a foot of snow Monday, closing hundreds of miles of major highways and causing major collisions, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.

A House bill would freeze the truck size and weight limits of 53 feet for trailers and 80,000 pounds for the entire national highway system.

Truck technicians next year will have to deal with a pronounced increase in engine fault codes because of the onboard diagnostics systems added to 2010 and later model engines, engine makers said.

Garmin International announced last week a global positioning system navigator that it said is its first portable navigation device designed exclusively for the trucking industry.

Several companies that blend diesel exhaust fluid, the urea solution used in truck engines with selective catalytic reduction systems, have had their blends certified by the American Petroleum Institute.

The ability to track the location and contents of trailers, in theory, can help carriers haul more goods in fewer trailers.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration released the results of a study led by the American Transportation Research Institute that quantifies the potential return on investment offered by three types of onboard truck safety systems.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last week took the first step toward creating a national cap-and-trade system, proposing a new rule that would establish a federal system for reporting carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases produced by large stationary and mobile sources.

The Environmental Protection Agency will require onboard diagnostics systems on at least one engine family per manufacturer starting in 2010.

Gary Weilheimer and Tom Tranovich, who have more than 40 years combined transportation experience, said they are opening linked non-asset-based businesses to serve the logistics industry.