Legal issues

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.

A federal appeals court backed the authority of the EPA to grant environmental waivers to California, with possible ramifications for trucking.

Leon Keener pleaded guilty to mail fraud in an embezzlement scheme in which he stole $1.3 million from I-State Truck Centers in Minnesota.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers vetoed a bill that would have put a $1 million cap on non-economic damages in lawsuits related to accidents involving trucks and other commercial motor vehicles.

Truck lease purchase deals did not get many positive reviews at a recent gathering of a federal task force studying the deals’ impact.

A California-based less-than-truckload carrier has ceased operations, leaving over 200 truck drivers, warehouse workers and office personnel without jobs or paychecks.

A nuclear verdict in a fatal accident on Interstate 70 in Missouri has been upheld by an appellate court.

A jury found Jesus Puebla, 27, of Denver, guilty of five counts of vehicular homicide after the straight truck he was driving crashed into an SUV carrying a Wyoming family.

Natural gas may be having a moment as an alternative fuel for trucking, but there are a few nagging questions.

An earlier ruling that a group of drivers in Amazon’s Flex program in Wisconsin are employees rather than independent contractors has effectively been upheld.

An administrative assistant at a Texas trucking company who ran a fraudulent pay scheme faces more than five years in prison.

Agents in Cincinnati found fake NFL, NCAA and MLB championship rings that had been sent from Hong Kong to Kansas.

In the ongoing battle between FreightTech giants project44 and FourKites, the Illinois Supreme Court has sided with project44, agreeing that allegedly defamatory emails were sent to a third party.

Transfix has launched tools aimed at protecting shippers, carriers and brokers from fraud.

In the ongoing battle between FreightTech giants project44 and FourKites, the Illinois Supreme Court has sided with project44, agreeing that allegedly defamatory emails were sent to a third party.

Legislation heading to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to bar most truck-crash lawsuits against insurance companies would reduce premiums and lead more insurers to write policies, supporters say.

The odds of winning the big AB5 independent contractor case on appeal, after last week’s smackdown in a lower court, are considered slim, observers say.

A new attempt to keep California’s independent contractor law AB5 from the state’s trucking sector was thoroughly rejected by a federal judge this week.

Prosecutors said Viorel Pricop set fire to Swift Transportation trailers after the company helped law enforcement bring federal charges against him.

Gov. Eric Holcomb of Indiana has signed a bill that allows juries to know whether a plaintiff in a vehicle accident was using a seat belt. The ATA has praised the legislation.

An NLRB rule on joint employee status that was widely feared by employers has been vacated by a federal court in Texas just before it was to take effect.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has withdrawn a rule that would have required reporting of scope 3 emissions, those related to companies’ supply chains.

Truck driver Kelvin Garcia Liriano, 28, of New Rochelle, New York, was sentenced to six months in prison for stealing $33,000 load of Mike’s Hard Lemonade.

A case in Illinois involving BNSF Railway and a federal law on biometric information privacy has its settlement figure: $75 million.

The Texas Supreme Court has set a March 6 deadline for any parties that want to weigh in on the $90 million verdict against Werner Enterprises.

Supreme Court considers that question and what it means for disputes taken to arbitration or to court.

A Wisconsin bill may limit non-economic damages for accidents involving commercial vehicles. An Indiana bill would let seat belt use be used as evidence in accident lawsuits.

Federal prosecutors have charged the owner of an Illinois trucking company in an elaborate scheme to help applicants cheat on CDL exams by using hidden microphones and earpieces.

Texas-based factoring company Genesis Network Telecom filed for bankruptcy liquidation on Wednesday.

Fleet telematics provider Motive Technologies filed a lawsuit Thursday alleging Samsara Inc. copied and used its proprietary technology and patents.

Two owners of a Utah trucking group were recently convicted for their roles in a pay-to-play fraud scheme that siphoned more than $108 million from FedEx Ground.

An administrative law judge ruling against the current system of chassis pools was upheld by the full Federal Maritime Commission.

The owner of an Ohio trucking company pleaded guilty to wire fraud, admitting his role in a scheme to overbill shippers and consolidate shipments headed for Amazon warehouses and Bath & Body Works stores.

A lawsuit that goes back to 2010 and opened the door for the ABC test in New Jersey has been settled.

New Jersey is raising its truck liability insurance requirement to $1.5 million, one of the highest in the U.S.

Federal regulators are proposing to ease requirements for new truck drivers — but crash victim advocates warn safety will be compromised.

Federal investigators have charged two current and two former Massachusetts State Police (MSP) troopers, along with two others, alleging the six traded favors in exchange for giving passing scores to certain applicants in a fraudulent commercial driver’s license (CDL) scheme.

A Texas-based trucking company has filed for bankruptcy liquidation four days before a wrongful death civil trial filed by the family of one of its former drivers who drowned in 2016 was slated to start in El Paso County, Texas.

Ex-Slync CEO Christopher Kirchner was found guilty Thursday of four counts of wire fraud and seven counts of money laundering following a four-day jury trial in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District in Fort Worth, Texas.

Six people have pleaded guilty so far in a federal fraud case involving former executives at Polar Air Cargo, customers and service providers.

Fleet telematics provider Samsara Inc. (NYSE: IOT) filed suit against rival Motive Technologies in federal court Wednesday, alleging Motive, formerly KeepTruckin, copied and used its proprietary technology and engaged in false and misleading advertising.