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The Department of Transportation plans to change the way it regulates hazardous materials by splitting the functions of the Research and Special Programs Administration, DOT said last week.

No consensus has been reached on how to ensure that equipment such as intermodal chassis are properly maintained, despite statements by some members of an intermodal industry working group, American Trucking Associations said last week.

Trucking industry security professionals at a recent conference urged minimum federal prison sentences for cargo theft, heard security experts outline the seriousness of theft and terrorism, and participated in an exercise on identifying threats, the sponsoring American Trucking Associations’ council said..

The Transportation Security Administration’s requirement that states administer separate programs to check the backgrounds of 3.5 million truck drivers licensed to carry hazardous materials will create a “nightmare,” six trucking industry executives said last week.

WASHINGTON — The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee last week approved a 6-year, $255 billion transportation bill that would fund increases in federal highway spending.

New rules on handling hazardous materials do not go far enough in setting needed uniform guidelines, but they do help in other areas, trucking industry officials said last week.

Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.) has introduced an industry-backed bill designed to make sure that only roadworthy truck chassis are released by shipyards and railyards for truckers to haul in intermodal operations.

The Transportation Security Administration unveiled a long-awaited plan to delay at least to April 1 its earlier deadline for states to begin fingerprinting people who apply for new or renewal certifications to haul hazardous materials.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said it was set to begin enforcing its new hours-of-service regulations Jan. 4, probably without major changes in the rules it published in April.

The government has significantly softened earlier proposals for anti-terrorism rules covering cross-border food shipments, heading off what could have caused chaos for haulers of food and agricultural commodities, industry officials said last week.