Draymen support new chassis regulations
Proposed U.S. Department of Transportation regulations designed to make companies that tender chassis to move containers from ports and railheads responsible for assuring equipment is in good working order, received strong support from draymen in a 'listening session' held in Port Newark Thursday.
'Any procrastination would be injurious to the trucking public and the public that transits roads,' said Tom Adamski of Cross Port Transportation.
Adamski, who said the regulations are supported by the New Jersey Motor Truck Association and BiState Harbor Carrier Conference, said 'it is so long overdue that it is almost absurd.'
Chassis leasing companies and steamship lines own hundreds of thousands of pieces of equipment and should be held to the same standard as trucking companies, he said. There are about 850,000 chassis in the United States that would be covered by the new rules.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration estimates that the cost of compliance with the new rules will be $28 million to $41 million the first year, and $147 million to $242 million in the first 10 years.
Christopher Rotondo, a division administrator for the FMCSA, said a drayman can be held responsible for defective equipment given to him at a terminal, even if it is a problem like brakes that aren't functioning after a drayman moves a container a block away from a terminal.
'We know brakes don't fail in a block and a half,' he added. 'There is a disproportionate number of violations on chassis as opposed to power units.'
Just as trucking companies must inspect trucks annually and maintain them, he said chassis companies would be responsible for inspections and maintenance of equipment.
Under the new regulations 'we will be able to go into a terminal and inspect equipment,' Rotondo said.
'We are two and a half years into the process,' he said, but was reluctant to make a firm prediction on when the new regulations would go into effect.
Joseph Curto, executive vice president-operations at Maher Terminals, said his firm supported the regulations as they are written and didn't expect to see a lot of changes.
'This is the product of a lot of negotiation and compromise — this is a consensus rule,' he added.
That sentiment was echoed by Dick Jones executive director of the Association of Bi-State Motor Carriers, who said he expected only fine-tuning of the rules.
Making the parties that tender the chassis responsible for making sure they are in good working order could improve things for draymen who say they sometimes must wait on line for hours if they are given a container on a chassis that needs to be replaced or repaired.
So pressed are draymen, that Ronald Capri, an international vice president of the International Longshoremen's Association, remarked some drivers will take a box out of a terminal 'on a heavy-duty skateboard.'
He said it is important that there be uniformity in the way equipment is checked from terminal to terminal. Making sure equipment is roadworthy should be the work of mechanics like the men he represents who can 'pull a wheel' to check the condition of a brake, for example, he said.
Another listening session will be held May 18 at the Holiday Inn Long Beach Airport, 2640 Lakewood Blvd, Long Beach, Calif.