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The long-awaited new federal chassis safety rules take effect June 30, but officials said questions remain about damage reports truckers must file to keep equipment in roadworthy shape.

Catching employers who misclassify their employees as independent contractors would help ensure a “level playing field in the marketplace,” a top official with the U.S. Department of Labor told a Senate committee.

Tim Lynch, American Trucking Associations’ top lobbyist, said last week he would leave the federation in July to join a Washington, D.C., law firm’s government affairs department.

Some trucking executives said they are concerned that providing additional training to their drivers to meet the federal government’s new safety program may put their independent contractor status at risk.

New U.S. registrations of heavy-duty trucks grew 8.4% in April compared with the same month a year ago, following an 11.3% gain in March, according to R.L. Polk & Co.

After improving along with most other equities during the last nine months of 2009, trucking stocks this year have done little more than tread water, with a good run from early February through late April sandwiched between two brief pull-backs by investors.

A coalition of interest groups that has repeatedly succeeded in challenging the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s hours-of-service rule last week pushed for dramatically cutting the current daily and weekly work-time limits.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration remains “absolutely” committed to the current timeline for rolling out CSA 2010, Administrator Anne Ferro said.

Detroit Diesel Corp. said it will spend $194 million to renovate its 72-year-old Redford, Mich., plant, the latest example of truck makers pouring investments into diesel engine facilities to manufacture the complicated new power plants and vertically integrate production.

Retail diesel prices reversed course last week, as the national average rose 3.3 cents a gallon to $2.961 after falling 19.9 cents in the five previous weeks, the Department of Energy reported.