Feds rule trucking firm 'satisfactory'
4/8/07
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The Truckers Report Merchandise

How far can they go back??

They can audit from six months ago for sure, they may be able to go farther, but trucking companies only have to keep the records for six months as far as I know.

AJ

that logbook violation is enough to sue the company and the driver..........any dimwitted attorney can win this easliy enough. i live in New England and i am familar with this accident as it was all over the news the next day.

frankly, if the driver violated the HOS rules, he ought to fry...............

its drivers like that which make us all look bad, and i can guarantee you that his company will fry as well.................

an innocent person was killed because he violated the HOS rules........

nuff said..............don't you think.............??

The company is only required to keep the previous 6 months plus the current month.

DOT usually only pulls the last 30-60 days when doing an internal audit. In cases of death they do go back further on that one driver. They will ask the log auditor what is the dates of logs you have on the drivers they are auditing and any missing logs the company & driver will be dinged for a false log due to missing logs.
If the company has on file the last 10 months (bad company for hanging on to them this long) they can go back further.

If this company has qualcom the officers probably subpoened the qualcom records and made out logs on the driver from the qualcom records, toll receipts etc. for the last 30 days up to the minute of the accident. This will tell them facts of what the driver was actually doing.
That's what happened in our situation 3-4 yrs ago.

Prime canidate drivers to be audited if DOT comes into the company are
1) Drivers who have been pulled over within the last 6 months by an officer
2) Drivers who have been in a DOT reportable accident

You do not have to be an active driver with the company to be audited.

Drivers can recieve a fine in the mail for any log violations DOT finds during this audit.

Ok that is the basics of what happens during a DOT audit in house. This might be more information than you asked. I want drivers to understand what happens when they come in. It is more detailed than what happens on the road!

The company might survive due to insurance. They will have to pay fines for those violations and they are not cheap. Maybe they have enough cash in the bank to pay this???

The driver will probably get Vehicular Manslaughter for every death that happened.

Well the article is poorly written, (Or maybe it's being poorly read...)

I have learned on here they can go back, find a violation from __ many months ago, and then say, "Well if you would have been legal back there, then you would not have been here at this particular moment in time."

So that must be the case here, or they would have filed charges on him immediately?