FMCSA shuts down Indiana trucking company over repeated violations

After a series of flagrant driver compliance violations, one Indiana-based trucking company has found itself ordered to shut down many of its operations.

In a harsh rebuke, the Department of Transportation's primary watchdog for the trucking industry, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, declared U&D Service Inc. of Indianapolis, Indiana, an "imminent hazard" to public safety.

The regulatory agency ordered the trucking company to "cease all transportation services in or affecting interstate commerce." Given that this includes using interstate highways, the ban is essentially crippling.

But Truckinginfo reports that the citation is hardly undeserved.

In May of last year, U&D was identified as a New Entrant Carrier and subjected to a standard 18-month monitoring period to determine the efficacy of its DOT compliance programs. This entailed regular stops by Indiana state troopers to check for driver qualifications and to ensure that the trucks met with regulatory weight limits.

In only three months from early November 2011 to the end of January this year, however, U&D was issued more than 50 citations for a variety of DOT compliance violations. Included in this were more than a dozen weight limit violations, with 10 citations for vehicle weight limits and eight for tire weight limits.

But perhaps the larger problem were the consistent driver qualification violations. A full dozen drivers were cited for operating without a valid commercial driver's licence. Nearly twice as many drivers, 21 in total, were cited for failing to meet English proficiency requirements for commercial drivers. State troopers cited several examples where drivers were unable to answer the most basic questions about their trip, including origin or destination.

One trooper relayed the story of a driver who simply drove off after being told that his truck was being taken out of service.

WTHR reports that over the past four months the number of violations has been even higher, reaching more than 130 citations, including nearly 50 weight violations alone.

"I don't know why they continue to repeat the same violations because they're telling us they have corrected these issues, but we're finding that they're not," Wayne Andrews, the head of the Indiana State Police's motor carrier inspection program, told the news source.

The FMCSA reports it oversaw more than 34,000 New Entrant Safety Audits in fiscal year 2010 and issued more than 1,000 out-of-service orders.

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