A Maine trucking company that spent 40 years serving the state’s seafood industry was fined $45,000 earlier this week for keeping false logs that understated the amount of time drivers spent on the road.

According to Associated Press reports, Portland-based Ameri-Cana Transport pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court. Federal prosecutors said the company ceased all trucking business as of July 22, when they began the process of liquidating assets.
Ameri-Cana Transport, which hauled fresh Maine fish to wholesale markets in New York and Boston, was found to have falsified about 100 driver logs made and kept at the company in the year ended August 31, 1999. According to court documents, authorities discovered the violations when they compared the logs with other company documents, such as toll tickets, shipping documents, trip reports, payroll records, fuel receipts and dispatch records. Authorities concluded that the log entries understated the amount of time drivers worked.
Ameri-Cana’s lawyer said the trucking firm paid its drivers by the trip and turned the other cheek when some of them falsified their logs as a way to up their pay. The lawyer also said the company's decision to liquidate was coincidental and was linked to a tragedy in the family. The son of Ameri-Cana Transport's founder and president suffered a fatal heart attack in January.