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January 26, 2004 7:00 AM, EST

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he U.S. Department of Transportation will hold companies that provide intermodal equipment to truckers responsible for maintaining that equipment, in a reversal of a policy announced just weeks ago.

Several weeks ago, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, a DOT agency, declined to issue a rule on intermodal chassis maintenance.

In its Dec. 31 decision, FMCSA said that while the trucking industry felt the matter was a safety issue, there were “no data available to support this assertion.”

On Jan. 22, however, Warren Hoemann, deputy administrator of FMCSA, told Transport Topics that under a plan approved by DOT Secretary Norman Mineta, the government would issue a rule providing that the responsibility for maintaining intermodal chassis would rest with the providers of that equipment.

For the full story, see the Jan. 26 edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.