Legal issues

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on Thursday removed two ELDs from its registered list.

A former co-owner of now-defunct Westfield Transport of West Springfield, Massachusetts, has pleaded guilty to falsifying driving logs in connection with a June 2019 collision involving one of the company’s trucks.

Pilot Air Freight, an international freight shipping and logistics company, will pay $400,000 to settle a 2019 disability discrimination lawsuit brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

ATA and OOIDA are at odds in a very public way over the Biden administration independent contractor rule.

Gerald Ditz, who goes by Jerry, and Michael Alaniz, have been indicted by a federal grand jury in a stolen watch scheme.

The Teamsters union claimed a legal victory in its pressure campaign for collective bargaining at Amazon’s primary air hub in northern Kentucky, near Cincinnati.

OOIDA, in its appeal in California’s AB5 independent contractor law case, raised the law’s B2B exemption as an issue.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is suing Transportation Management Group, doing business as Wilson Logistics, for allegedly refusing to hire a deaf truck driver.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection last week seized 3,400 pounds of methamphetamine on the Southern border and 266 pounds of cocaine on the Northern border – all on the same day.

The CEO of truckload carrier NFI pleaded not guilty in a New Jersey political corruption case.

A proposed shift in how tax revenue generated by freight movements is allocated among states has hit a dead end.

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs announced Energy Fuels Resources Inc. would voluntarily halt transporting uranium ore through Navajo Nation lands to Utah shortly after the tribe’s president issued an executive order banning the ore transport.

A federal lawsuit filed against the owners and operators of a cargo ship that sank off the Georgia coast in 2019 has been dismissed at the request of Glynn County.

New Jersey independent contractors who haul freight under STG Drayage’s operating authority will no longer be tendered loads in November unless the truckers get their own authority through the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

Charles Christian Haskell, 51, of Las Vegas, was charged with five counts of death by motor vehicle after a crash involving his tractor-trailer on Interstate 95 in Wilson County, North Carolina, on July 24.

The U.S.-flag subsidiary of shipping leviathan Maersk has agreed to a settlement with the U.S. government over the termination of a seaman who alerted authorities to potential unsafe conditions on a cargo vessel.without first notifying the company.

A Washington jury awarded $24.2 million to the former Port of Seattle police chief, who was fired three years ago and sued the port, alleging wrongful termination.

Jacob McDonald, 60, was indicted by a Licking County grand jury for his role in a Nov. 14 crash that killed six people, including three high school students.

The California Supreme Court unanimously upheld the exemption from independent contractor law AB5 that Prop 22 granted to gig drivers.

FreightTech hasn’t solved freight fraud, and regulators can’t figure out who is regulating it. Is there a solution?

A federal lawsuit filed Tuesday by nonprofit Environment California accuses the Port of Los Angeles of violating the Clean Water Act.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has charged two more Florida executives with participating in a truck investment venture that allegedly bilked investors out of $112 million.

The nation’s trucking regulator has told Congress it lacks the ability to deal effectively with illegal brokers.

NullShip Shipping Solutions claims to sell U.S. Postal Service and UPS labels at a steep discount but sold clients counterfeit postal labels, costing one person thousands of dollars in lost goods.

A two-year process to determine how to value freight for state income tax purposes may be coming to a head.

A $10 million lawsuit by a Georgia man whose pickup was rear-ended by a truck driven for a South Carolina amusement rides company will be heard in federal court.

The brokerage industry, this time TQL, has won another court victory, shielding it from liability stemming from a carrier it hired.

A Texas truck driver rescued a 1-year-old baby found in a Louisiana ditch after his 4-year-old brother was found dead.

Nearly two dozen freight brokers say an Illinois trucking company and its “affiliated carriers” are holding 36 confirmed loads hostage until ransom demands are paid.

The key court battle to block the Biden administration’s independent contractor rule is in Louisiana, and a request for an injunction against the rule has been taken a step up in the federal courts.

Ex-Slync CEO Chris Kirchner was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District in Fort Worth, Texas.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents rescued 23 migrants who were locked inside a train car stationed in Laredo, Texas on Tuesday.

Frances Hall has pleaded no contest to charges she was part of a multimillion dollar fraud scheme while she was co-owner of Bill Hall Jr. Trucking.

NFI CEO Sidney Brown was not at the arraignment of his co-defendants in a New Jersey corruption case due to a lawyer conflict.

The Biden administration is pushing back the schedules for a list of rules that are being watched closely by trucking.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration ordered Monique Trucking to halt operations after declaring the California carrier “an imminent hazard to public safety” following a deadly crash.

A grand jury indicted Kirill Gordei, a Belarus citizen who lives in Florida and is president of Apelsin Logistics, on charges related to smuggling advanced scientific technology to Russia.

Dennis Winn of Clermont, Florida, was arrested on multiple charges, including a felony charge, of shooting a Walmart delivery drone.

Because insurers will be insulated from direct legal action under Georgia Senate Bill 426, the law may reduce their financial incentives to properly vet the trucking firms they insure.

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against Union Pacific, stating that plaintiff Le’Mon Bass failed to substantiate claims of racial discrimination and retaliation.

Tony Kirik operated Dallas Logistics, based in Rochester, New York, but concealed ownership and affiliation with another company to hide negative safety ratings.

California’s PAGA law, long a bane for business, is set to get an overhaul.

U.S. Rep. David G. Valadao, R-Calif., this week introduced the Safeguarding our Supply Chains Act, which aims to stop “the rampant theft within our nation’s supply chains.”

Wheeler Trucking will pay $65,000 to an employee who faced religious discrimination at the company’s Ohio location.

Homendy says NS stonewalled the NTSB, sought to influence its investigation and even issued a threat in a recent meeting.

A federal lawsuit filed in 2022 over the capsized Golden Ray cargo ship, which sank off the coast of Georgia with nearly 4,200 vehicles on board, has been settled.

Judge Lewis J. Liman issued a 113-page ruling outlining his opinion of legal arguments brought against congestion pricing in Manhattan, which would charge truck drivers up to $36 for entering certain parts of the city.

A small Virginia trucking company fought off a union, but ensuing legal cases may end up pushing the National Labor Relations Board toward more pro-union policies.

Oleanvine Pickering-Mayard, director at the British Virgin Islands Port Authority, was sentenced to more than nine years in prison on Thursday for her participation in a scheme to deliver cocaine from the British Virgin Islands to the U.S.

NFI CEO Sidney Brown has been indicted as part of the broader “Norcross case” that may shake up New Jersey politics.

A long-standing dispute between logistics technology providers ended with a $16 million payment from CargoSprint to PayCargo.

NSF must pay more than $394 million for transporting oil across tribal land in northwest Washington in violation of an agreement, a judge has ruled.

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation is suing Alabama-based Dove Transportation after one of the carrier’s trucks struck a bridge in 2021, causing “substantial damage.”

15,867 Amazon Flex drivers across three states filed arbitration with the American Arbitration Association alleging Amazon had misclassified their job roles as independent contractors rather than employees, resulting in underpaid and lost wages.

A Georgia jury recently awarded more than $47 million to the family of a 35-year-old owner-operator who was killed in a August 2017 crash involving a former company driver for Wisconsin-based Schneider National Carriers.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers found 450 pounds of cocaine hidden in a container chassis aboard the Blue Wave merchant vessel arriving in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Tuesday.

Aivaras Zigmantas has pleaded not guilty after being indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly posing as an agent for carriers and stealing shipments that were released to him.

AB5, California’s independent contractor classification law, has won a second significant decision in a federal court, with all 11 members of a 9th Circuit panel upholding the law for Uber drivers.

Sedrick Zelitis Smith, 47, of Dallas, used his CDL to assist a human smuggling organization. He coordinated the transport of migrants who arrived in Laredo, Texas, from Mexico.

A Michigan truck driver who was found guilty of setting Swift Transportation equipment on fire as part of a vendetta against the company has been sentenced to more than a decade in federal prison.

Highway’s Jordan Graft discusses how to fix fraud in the trucking industry at FreightWaves’ Future of Supply Chain event.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul ordered an indefinite pause of congestion pricing just days after a trucking group sued to halt the fees for those driving to Manhattan.

Marker 17 Marine and Premium Carriers Inc. are being sued for $1.4 million after a yacht owned by Max Zach Corp. was destroyed in transit from North Carolina to Connecticut.

An Indiana trucking company with 122 drivers and 142 power units recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The Trucking Association of New York has filed a federal lawsuit in hopes of halting the congestion fee for those driving into Manhattan, which will cost truck drivers up to $36.

Lars Winkelbauer, a former high-level executive at Polar Air Cargo, received a four-year prison sentence for defrauding the company.

The U.S. wants a labor rights investigation of a Volkswagen factory in Puebla, Mexico.

A Los Angeles jury awarded more than $58 million to Pablo Scipione, who suffered a microfracture in his foot while working at a train yard in 2016.Independent contractor was injured in 2016 at Kinkisharyo yard

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Texas seized more than $5.4 million worth of methamphetamine hidden in a shipment of papayas.

A California company, which once contracted with FedEx Ground to deliver packages before filing suit against the global delivery giant over alleged illegal business practices, has filed for bankruptcy liquidation.

Norfolk Southern will be required to pay an additional $310 million for the 2023 East Palestine derailment. The settlement will go towards measures to improve rail safety, pay for health monitoring and mental health services for the surrounding communities, fund long-term environmental monitoring and more.

New legislation designed to crack down on fake companies that give legitimate brokers and carriers a bad name has bipartisan support.

Another large trucking company has asked federal regulators to relax its permitting rules to get drivers in seats faster.

Minnesota has reached a deal on compensation for Uber and Lyft drivers, and a California court seems to favor Proposition 22’s protections for gig workers from the state’s independent contractor law.

BNSF Railway has filed an appeal for an asbestos trial verdict that ruled the railroad was liable in the deaths of two people in Montana.

A coalition of far-flung states has filed a lawsuit to fight California’s Advanced Clean Fleets rule.

A federal lawsuit alleges CSX inflated the amount of time employees were charged for taking leave under the Family Medical Leave Act, punished workers for taking the leave, and terminated or suspended over 100 employees for allegedly taking FMLA leave fraudulently.

A federal grand jury has indicted an Ohio trucking company owner, alleging the former Department of Defense contractor failed to pay approximately $1.2 million in taxes in a yearslong scheme.

Peloton filed a complaint with the Federal Maritime Commission alleging that Flexport’s practices cost the fitness company millions of dollars in unreasonable detention and demurrage charges.

More than 3 1/2 years after a suspect in a series of staged accidents in Louisiana was slain, there are arrests in the case.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has signed into law a bill that largely prevents lawsuits from being filed directly against insurers after truck crashes.

Delivery company DHL will pay $8.7 million to settle a class race discrimination lawsuit alleging that the company assigned Black workers to more dangerous routes than white workers.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized some 2,300 baby and children’s products from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Descartes MacroPoint FraudGuard evaluates billions of data points related to freight location and shipment status in order to flag potential freight fraud.

TFI International subsidiaries TA Dedicated and Transportation Enterprise Services will pay $460,000 to settle a sexual orientation and retaliation lawsuit, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced Monday.

A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision helps define the legal status of  transportation workers at companies that are not primarily involved in transportation.

The U.S. Department of Labor announced a final rule that will ensure overtime pay for some salaried and highly compensated employees – a move that critics say could hurt brokers operating small businesses.

Wyoming locomotive engineer Andrew Kirol claims in a lawsuit that he was injured when an AI system used by Union Pacific gave incorrect information to locomotives on the train on which he was working.

Federal regulators are taking the first steps to crack down on scams caused by hackers into the trucking industry’s government registration system.

Truckstop CEO Kendra Tucker said her company has taken steps to address freight fraud on its platform.

The one attorney who has pleaded guilty in the Louisiana staged truck accident scam has seen his sentencing delayed again.

Arkansas authorities arrested a truck driver after a traffic stop allegedly revealed he was in possession of nearly 28,000 packs of untaxed cigarettes.

Vladimir Tsymbalenko, a former CDL school owner in Philadelphia, was sentenced to federal prison after pleading guilty to bribing a CDL test administrator to pass clients.

Now on demand on WHAT THE TRUCK?!? Dooner is joined by Dominick Tullo; Greg Steele; Ronalkd Greene

Here are a few key takeaways from the Scopelitis Transportation Law seminar on the myriad of legal issues facing today’s trucking fleets.

Federal rules on personal conveyance are a big reason for continued hours-of-service violations, according to P. Sean Garney of Scopelitis Transportation Consulting.

The California Trucking Association and OOIDA plan to appeal a recent decision upholding California’s independent contractor law, AB5, to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

A new law in Minneapolis that was to go into effect May 1 on Uber, Lyft compensation has been delayed.

Former Tony’s Express employees and truck drivers say financial mismanagement by new owner John Ohle led to the trucking company’s collapse.

A truck driver who filed a defamation suit because of the contents of a report on him came up short on appeal in federal court.