Feds Sharpen Teeth In Driver Hours Enforcement
Owners and Employees can be held at fault in logbook violations.
Doug Condra
President
The U.S. Attorney's Office has sent another blunt message to the trucking industry: If you encourage—or allow, for that matter—falsified driver logbooks, there may be a prison cell waiting for you.
The message came with a recent Philadelphia federal grand jury's indictments against a Pennsylvania trucking company, a dispatcher and eight drivers.
The drivers are charged with lying about their driving hours to the Department of Transportation. The company and its dispatcher are accused of aiding and abetting the making of false statements to DOT.
All but two of the drivers are charged with 10 counts of falsifying records. One is charged with just two such counts. The eighth driver, who worked for a different company, is accused of using drugs on duty, plus 10 counts of falsifying records.
The latter driver, whose actions allegedly caused a fatal accident, is obviously in much deeper trouble than the other seven. Regardless, the penalties just for the logbook violations are heavyweights: possible maximum sentence per count of five years in prison, three years supervised release and a $250,000 fine.
Should the court show no mercy, a driver convicted on all 10 logbook counts could be looking at 50 years in the slammer and $2.5 million in fines. That probably won't happen, but it's certainly food for thought.
That's just the drivers' plight. It's worse for the trucking company's management and dispatcher. Each faces 20 counts of aiding and abetting logbook violations, so you can double up on the possible punishments.
In past similar cases, officers and some supervisory personnel—dispatchers and even mechanics—have been held subject to safety regulations. One 1999 case involved the owner of the fleet that just came under indictment.
The company, Ontelaunee Transport Services Inc., is a dry bulk and waste hauler based in Kempton, Pa. According to government documents, it formerly did business as David Kistler and Grandson Inc. The seven indicted drivers worked for the company before the name change.
Charged in 1999 with allowing logbook cheating by his drivers, David Kistler Delong, his mother, Faye Delong, and a dispatcher all pleaded guilty. Delong continued to run his company while out on bail. If the current charges stick, it would be safe to say that a lesson went unlearned.
In another 1999 case, two brothers who owned a New Hampshire dump truck operation admitted to letting drivers falsify records. They each got four months in prison, eight more months of home confinement and a year on supervised release. The company got two years' probation and was fined $25,000—the maximum at the time.
That's a mere slap on the wrist compared to what the defendants in these new cases are looking at.
The bottom line: If drivers cheat, owners and managers are personally vulnerable to being charged, and the potential punishment now is formidable.
In announcing the latest indictments, U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan made it clear the feds are serious. "What we're dealing with here is a life and death safety issue," he said. "We will continue to prosecute these cases."
This might be a good time to look for any kinks in your logbook system.
Email Doug Condra at dcondra@truckinginfo.com, or write PO Box W, Newport Beach, Calif. 92656.
