The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is implementing a number of rule changes required by last year’s highway law, including higher fines for various violations.

In a Federal Register notice, the agency spells out 17 changes that do not require a formal rulemaking process.

Here are the major items:

  • The fine for violating reporting and record-keeping requirements has been bumped from $500 to $1,000.
  • The fine for violating registration requirements has been bumped from $500 to $10,000.
  • The fine for transporting hazmats has gone from a maximum of $20,000 to a minimum of $20,000 and a maximum of $40,000.
  • The maximum fine for failing to obey a subpoena or an agency order to testify has gone from $5,000 to $10,000.
  • The penalty for violating an out-of-service order following a finding of being unfit or an imminent hazard is $25,000.
  • Willful violation of the rules can cost up to $5,000 for the first instance and $7,000 for the second.
  • The fine for hazmat violations that lead to death or severe injury has jumped significantly, from a maximum of $100,000 to $175,000.
  • Brokers and freight forwarders must maintain a bond of at least $75,000.
  • New entrants to the business now must undergo a safety review within a year of beginning operations, rather than the 18 months that was formerly required.
  • Formerly, the agency could put a truck out of service for operating without registration or outside the scope of its registration. Now it can put the entire company out of service.
  • Formerly, an employer was forbidden from letting a driver drive when he knew that the person had lost his license. Now the standard is, knows or should reasonably know.
  • The agency used to consider a carrier’s ability to pay, among other factors, when assessing a fine. Now it will not.

 

About the author
Oliver Patton

Oliver Patton

Former Washington Editor

Truck journalist 36 years, who joined Heavy Duty Trucking in 1998 and has retired. He was the trucking press’ leading authority on legislative and regulatory affairs.

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