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Catching employers who misclassify their employees as independent contractors would help ensure a “level playing field in the marketplace,” a top official with the U.S. Department of Labor told a Senate committee.

The long-awaited new federal chassis safety rules take effect June 30, but officials said questions remain about damage reports truckers must file to keep equipment in roadworthy shape.

Detroit Diesel Corp. said it will spend $194 million to renovate its 72-year-old Redford, Mich., plant, the latest example of truck makers pouring investments into diesel engine facilities to manufacture the complicated new power plants and vertically integrate production.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration remains “absolutely” committed to the current timeline for rolling out CSA 2010, Administrator Anne Ferro said.

A coalition of interest groups that has repeatedly succeeded in challenging the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s hours-of-service rule last week pushed for dramatically cutting the current daily and weekly work-time limits.

Retail diesel prices reversed course last week, as the national average rose 3.3 cents a gallon to $2.961 after falling 19.9 cents in the five previous weeks, the Department of Energy reported.

The federal government’s Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010 is supported by the trucking industry but needs some changes, a trucking executive testifying for American Trucking Associations told a congressional panel Wednesday.

The past 10 months have seen a precipitous decline in the quality of driver applicants. There are recruiters everywhere saying, “Good applicants are getting scarce.”

A Senate bill that supporters said would make it easier for federal regulators to catch employers who misclassify their employees as independent contractors also would help ensure a “level playing field in the marketplace,” a top official with the Department of Labor told a Senate panel.