Intermodal truckers, who have been fighting since 1997 to improve chassis maintenance, say that goal remains elusive today, four years after the rule meant to address the problem went into effect.

Drayage fleets have won regulatory approval to set up the first trucker-owned chassis pool for highway moves of intermodal cargo at a time when ocean carriers are moving away from their role of providing that equipment.

The gradual shift of intermodal equipment control from ocean carriers to truckers advanced last week as an industry group formally created a chassis cooperative and drayage carrier, IMC Companies, purchased 1,520 units for use in an existing pool.

The failure of Congress to pass legislation to provide funding to improve and expand the nation’s highway system has left many roads covered with cracks, potholes and uneven pavement, which are creating additional challenges for some vehicle suspension makers, according to company officials.

The ongoing shift of intermodal chassis ownership from ocean carriers to truckers and lessors could encounter a new jolt as the International Longshoremen’s Association promised to keep the repairing of chassis a key negotiating issue in contract talks that begin next week.

Two new chassis pool options are emerging for drayage carriers that have been struggling with equipment issues since ocean lines began in 2009 to back away from providing chassis free-of-charge for moving international containers.

Two years after truckers won a decade-long battle to win new federally mandated chassis-safety rules, broad disagreement about the effect of those changes remains, marketplace confusion reigns and operational issues are unresolved, according to trucking officials and consultants.

Nearly two years after Maersk Line, the world’s largest ocean carrier, shook up the system for delivering freight containers from U.S. ports by requiring drayage truckers for the first time to pay rental fees for chassis, three trade groups are trying to foster an orderly transition to a new intermodal reality.

It took years for the trucking industry to get Congress to place responsibility for intermodal freight chassis road worthiness in the correct place. In 2005, legislators specified that the providers of the equipment — and not the fleets that were using them to move freight — had to ensure that the units met all safety standards.

As a new federal chassis rule is taking effect this spring, frequent errors are hurting intermodal fleets’ safety records and saddling them with violations that were supposed to be charged against chassis providers, according to industry officials.