The Federal Maritime Commission has issued a final ruling to simplify international container billing practices in a move hailed by truckers.

FMC upheld a previous decision that ocean carriers violated federal law when a judge ruled the carriers required trucking companies to use specific intermodal chassis providers.

The Federal Maritime Commission judge overseeing the $1.8 billion case between the Intermodal Motor Carriers Conference of American Trucking Associations and the Ocean Carriers Equipment Management Association has rejected OCEMA’s appeal to have the case stayed.

After more than three decades working for Nashville, Tenn.-based motor carrier TCW — including a more than 20-year stint as its president — as well as a year as chairman of American Trucking Associations, Dave Manning has decided to retire.

A judge is weighing an appeal that will determine whether a trucking industry challenge to prices being charged for shipping containers at ports will be permitted to proceed.

American Trucking Associations’ Intermodal Motor Carriers Conference on Aug. 17 filed a complaint against the Ocean Carrier Equipment Management Association and 11 international ocean carriers alleging conduct that violates the Shipping Act, charging they inflated prices in the intermodal chassis market at dozens of ports across the country.

U.S. trucking companies that operate at the nation’s ports are preparing to take a long-simmering financial dispute with overseas ocean carriers to the Federal Maritime Commission.