Moving with surprising speed, the Federal Motor Carrier Administration last week issued "an imminent hazard" out-of-service order against Clock Transport LLC of Hanover, Md., based on the company's affiliation with Gunthers Transport.


The newest OOS order targeting Clock was issued after one of its trucks failed an inspection during a routine check in Ohio on Oct. 20. It is the only infraction cited by federal authorities against Clock Transport, which started running trucks just weeks before FMCSA issued an imminent hazard OOS order against Gunthers Transport. The two companies are listed at the same Hanover address. Both are located at 7462 Railroad Ave.

Additionally, incorporation papers for Clock Transport were filed in the name of Mark David Gunther Jr., the son of the owner of Gunthers Transport. They were filed before the federal order against Gunthers took effect. FMCSA barred Gunthers Transport from operating under another name.

Last Monday, Maryland State Police called Clock a "reincarnated carrier" set up to circumvent the shutdown order for Gunthers and vowed that troopers would repeatedly pull over any trucks linked to the address for safety inspections.

The Baltimore Sun reports that Clock Transport obtained a Department of Transportation identification number in September, and the junior Gunther formed the Maryland corporation in October. Clock took out a $750,000 insurance policy, the federal minimum, effective Oct. 21.

On Nov. 8, the FMCSA delivered a notice to Gunthers Transport, shutting the company down. In the order, the agency outlined a long history of safety violations and failed inspections. The company has been involved in at least seven serious crashes in the past year, one of which resulted in a fatality.

Gunthers Transport and the former Gunther's Leasing Transport Inc., both owned by Mark David Gunther Sr., have been involved in a string of legal problems and safety infractions, including falsifying driver logs to mask driver shifts that exceeded federal limits.

Gunther's Leasing declared bankruptcy the same month it lost a civil lawsuit stemming from a 1994 crash on the Capital Beltway that left one person dead; a construction worker run over in the accident and left permanently disabled is still owed millions of dollars awarded by a jury.

The senior Gunther was convicted in federal court in 1995 of falsifying driver's logs and of perjury. He lost an appeal and spent 30 months in prison. Prosecutors at the time said he was the first trucking company executive in the country targeted for criminal prosecution for rigging his books. In the past, officials said they sought administrative fines or civil sanctions.

But the elder Gunther emerged from prison, declared Gunther's Leasing Transport bankrupt - his attorney at the time said Gunther's Leasing could not pay the $16.5 million civil judgment - and started a new company, Gunthers Transport LLC.

The old assets were liquidated but had substantial liens, making them useless to the creditors, according to lawyers at the time. The trucks and other items went from Gunther's Leasing to Gunthers Transport.

Over the past two years, the 18 trucks for Gunthers Transport were inspected 190 times and were deemed unfit for service 58 percent of the time, about three times the national average. Drivers were inspected 242 times over the past two years, according to carrier agency's reports, and were found unfit to be driving 15 percent of the time, also three times the national average.

The latest out-of-service order puts six trucks and 15 drivers for Clock Transport off the road. Police could not say whether some of the same trucks used by Clock had been previously put out of service from Gunthers Transport, but they did confirm that operations for both companies were from the same address.