The Transportation Security Administration has asked American Trucking Associations for a new, detailed proposal to expand the organization’s Highway Watch program as part of the national campaign to combat terrorism.

WASHINGTON — Trucking fleet safety managers said their company executives regard speeding and aggressive driving as the worst safety-management problem, according to a report by the Transportation Research Board.

The U.S. Department of Transportation will hold companies that provide intermodal equipment to truckers responsible for maintaining that equipment, in a reversal of a policy announced just weeks ago.

WASHINGTON — The Transportation Department plans to require hazardous materials haulers to provide communications systems for drivers to ensure the safety of their loads, an official of the Research and Special Programs Administration told a transportation forum here last week.

After considering the issue for nearly five years, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said it will not establish rules to settle the longstanding dispute over who must maintain intermodal equipment such as chassis.

A top priority for lawmakers and the freight-hauling industry when Congress comes back to work on Jan. 20 will be passing a 6-year transportation bill, government and industry leaders said.

The General Accounting Office plans to complete a study within three months on the economic and air quality impact of the government’s 2002 rule that tightened standards for heavy-truck emissions, a GAO spokeswoman said.

The Teamsters Union and a senior member of Congress earlier this month pushed for legislation to require companies that own intermodal equipment, such as chassis, to be responsible for its safety.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s new rules governing truck driver work hours will increase driver fatigue and lead to more avoidable deaths on the nation’s highways, groups suing FMCSA have told a federal appeals court.

With the federal government requiring an aggressive anti-terrorist program based on high-technology solutions, trucking executives are also exploring other, less complicated methods of protecting hazardous materials cargo, drivers and fleets.