10/3/03 - State lawmakers failed to pass a proposal before they adjourned for the year that would have forced the owner or leaser of an intermodal chassis to be responsible for the proper maintenance of the equipment.
Under HB2561, marine or rail terminals in the state that load and unload oceangoing vessels would be required to check every intermodal chassis, the trailers that carry intermodal freight containers, before they leave a port.
The bill called for inspections that would have checked brakes, suspension, tires and wheels, connecting devices, lights, and electrical system. Inspectors would have been required to place a tamper-proof green tag on chassis with no defects and a red tag on chassis with defects.
Red-tagged chassis could not be released to a driver until repairs were made. Any chassis provider found to have violated this order would be fined $500.
The measure also allowed a driver to request that a chassis be reinspected if he or she thought it was unsafe. In the event of repacking, the terminal operator is forced to pay a trucker $100 per hour that the container is detained.