ARLINGTON, Va. — A quarter of a million dollars will go towards studying the strength of various cargo securement methods currently being used for several agricultural commodities hauled in tubs and bins such as fruits and vegetables.

The U.S. Department of Transportation said it will provide $250,000 for the study, which be conducted by a government research organization, the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in Cambridge, Mass.

“This is welcome news for the fruit and vegetable industry in states such as California because new cargo securement regulations are threatening to impose time-consuming additional requirements on the transportation system for such crops,” said Russell Laird, executive director of the Agricultural and Food Transporters Conference, which is part of the American Trucking Associations.

These regulations are being implemented by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration as part of the effort to harmonize cargo securement among North American countries and are based on the North American Cargo Securement Standard Model Regulations.

Concern recently arose in California when the rules were applied to perishable crops. Similar issues have also arisen with other agricultural commodities such as chili peppers in New Mexico, hay in Nevada, and apples in Washington state.

In response to the concerns of industry, the California Highway Patrol set up a process for obtaining an intrastate exemption to the general cargo requirements on a short-term basis.

This process will require a substantial amount of data reporting from motor carriers and it will be necessary to build a case for a long-term exemption and possible reform of the federal rules. The next step in the process is to conduct engineering tests in a laboratory setting to prove that the strength of the current securement methods used in hauling this cargo is adequate according to DOT standards.