After two years of virtual competition due to the COVID pandemic, Rush Enterprises kicked off an in-person Tech Skills Rodeo competition again over the weekend. Rush employees compete in hands-on and written challenges to test their mettle in a range of categories. The three-day event culminates in an awards ceremony. More than a thousand Rush Enterprises employees will be competing, and about $300,000 in prizes will be awarded.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announced $6 million to reimburse eligible employers to help remove obstacles for new truck drivers who want an entry-level commercial driver license. The new effort is called the Iowa Entry-Level Driver Training Program. It is available for Iowa-based employers, employer consortia and nonprofits who hire Iowa CDL drivers and provide entry-level driver training either in-house or with third-party certified training providers.

Harassment and assaults against truck drivers are widespread, particularly among women and minority male drivers, according to a new study and survey commissioned by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. “Harassment is more likely to happen at truck stops, places where truck drivers pick up or deliver cargo, and fueling stations,” concluded the two-year study by Battelle Memorial Institute, a private nonprofit applied science and technology development company in Columbus, Ohio.

A labor agreement between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association may not be reached until the first quarter of next year. That is the opinion of Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka, whose facility experienced a 25% drop in cargo volume in October and is down 6% for the year. Neighboring Port of Long Beach’s volume fell 17% in October. Some shippers instead have rerouted to the Gulf Coast and East Coast, where facilities have seen a spike in business.

Trucking technology company TuSimple and truck maker Navistar have agreed to end their co-development of autonomous trucks. The companies created the joint development agreement in 2020. No specific reason was given for why the arrangement was terminated, and TuSimple and Navistar said the action did not preclude them from collaborating on projects in the future.

The average price of a gallon of diesel fell 17.4 cents to $4.967, according to Energy Information Administration data released Dec. 5. While the price has seen a few weeks of drops, the cost for a gallon of trucking’s main fuel remains almost $1.30 more than this time last year.

Tesla late Thursday handed over the first batch of its long-awaited Semi trucks to PepsiCo, kicking off customer deliveries for the vehicle originally unveiled more than five years ago. The event was live-streamed on Twitter, a company recently purchased by Tesla owner Elon Musk. Musk described Tesla’s entry into the heavy-duty truck market as a “crucial piece of the puzzle” in the company’s overall mission to accelerate the shift toward sustainable energy.

Moving quickly to help avert a rail workers strike that would have cost the national economy an estimated $2 billion per day, the U.S. Senate on Dec. 1 advanced a tentative labor agreement between railroads and their employees. Senators on Dec. 1 voted 80-15 on the bill, which had been approved in the House of Representatives the previous day.

The House of Representatives on Nov. 30 passed a bill outlining a labor agreement between freight rail carriers and workers to avert a strike projected to cost the economy $2 billion a day. The legislation, which advanced to the Senate, would implement provisions negotiated in a tentative agreement reached in September by the Presidential Emergency Board. The measure passed in the House by a vote of 290-137 with bipartisan support. Freight stakeholders, including American Trucking Associations, have called on Congress to act. “Further delays only result in more uncertainty and inflationary pressure at a time when the economy is straining under the weight of both,” ATA President Chris Spear said.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee by a voice vote advanced to the floor of the chamber Shailen Bhatt’s nomination for the top role at the Federal Highway Administration. Bhatt’s credentials were praised by Delaware Democrat Tom Carper, and West Virginia Republican Shelley Moore Capito said she was assured by the nominee that he would commit to implementing the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act as it was enacted. Senate Democratic leaders have yet to schedule a vote in the full chamber during this lame duck session of Congress.