A few weeks ago, I wrote about the change in hours of operations for the commercial trucking industry, mentioning that very heavy fees could be charged to lawbreakers. There was an accompanying piece where I expressed my opinions about the benefits and shortcomings of the bill. To recap, regulations are being enacted to make the roads safer by restricting how many hours per week truck drivers are allowed to drive before taking an extended rest period.
Well, it appears that one particular Pennsylvaniatrucking company is not following the law. InLancasterCounty,PA, D.A. Landis Trucking, Inc. has been caught cooking the books. The company is being charged with having their drivers keep false records in their logbooks from January 2007 through November 2009. They also have additional charges from the U.S. Department of Transportation for making false statements.
The owner, D.A. Landis, continually disregarded safe driving procedures by encouraging his commercial truck drivers to operate on their own preferred shifts, rather than ones within the legal confines of the USDOT. And to cover this crime, drivers were told to prepare two sets of logbooks, one for personal compensation and one to present to the USDOT to conceal the wrongdoings.
If found guilty, the maximum penalty for the company is up to 5 years probation and fines up to $5.5 million, while Landis himself could wind up serving 5 years in prison.
In my Opinion Piece, I mentioned that drivers were upset that the changes to the laws forced them to sometimes maintain strange hours to stay in compliance. But the goal is road safety, for truckers and other drivers, so the government will strictly enforce these laws and penalize them appropriately.
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