5/19/04-An Assembly bill would force the owner of an intermodal chassis to be responsible for the proper maintenance of the equipment.
Under A1482, sponsored by Assemblyman John Wisniewski, D-Middlesex, ports 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 calls for inspections that would check brakes, suspension, tires and wheels, connecting devices, lights, and electrical system. Inspectors would be required to place a tamper-proof green tag on a chassis that has passed inspection and a red tag on chassis that has failed to pass inspection. Any chassis provider found to have violated this order would be fined $500 per occurrence.
Red-tagged chassis could not be released to a driver until repairs were made. The measure also would allow a driver to request that a chassis be reinspected if he/she thought it was unsafe.
It is in the Assembly Transportation Committee.
For bill status, call (609) 292-4840. In New Jersey, call 1-800-792-8630.
A similar Assembly bill – A1478 – is also in the Transportation Committee.