WASHINGTON – Carriers will no longer have to submit intermodal chassis condition reports on equipment that does not have any defects, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced.

The move is to simplify paperwork for truckers when returning intermodal chassis to rail or marine terminals.

According to the FMCSA, an estimated 96 percent of the chassis in-gated at intermodal facilities have no known damage or defects.

Driver vehicle inspection reports (DVIRs), however, still must be filed if drivers find defects on chassis they use as part of the so-called ‘roadability’ rules that took effect this summer.

The decision is in response to petitions submitted by the Ocean Carrier Equipment Management Association and the Institute of International Container Lessors, whose members control most intermodal chassis in the U.S.

The two groups argued that the requirement to file a DVIR for all chassis would waste 2 million hours a year on 38 million needless reports.