Falsifying logs

They used to call people like you Coolers back in the day ,they hired them after a unfavorable DOT audit.
They'd be in the office a while and disappear into the sunset.

 

I've said this many times ...I'am not a Lawyer .. I don't even claim to begin to know all the laws.. If it was me in your shoes .. I would start sending Emails by the boat load to the Motor Carrier you over seeing .telling them how this is not legal and just make the right recomendations . now that you filled in the blanks in the situation your in ...anything you can do to CYA ..Iam guessing the Carrier your trying to manage is not gonna change how they play... I wish you the best of luck

 

Conduct as much as possible all important conversations to the motor carrier via email... And in those emails you can quote anything they the motor carrier has told you verbally that you believe is illegal or negligent "to clarify" for your understanding.

This will provide a paper trail and proof that you have advised the motor carrier of thier illegal and/or negligent action and how to correct the problems. And in the end it may even provide the proof needed for FMCSA to shut them down... Especially if the motor carrier tries to blame you for thier own poor management and illegal operations.

 

I have driven for several well known companies over the years that ran afoul of carrier enforcement in compliance reviews .
Hos violations.
Falsifications .
Falsification of physicals .
In every case the safety director was the scapegoat and gone .

 

Carrier I was leased on to was a habitual offender and got stuck with over $250,000 in fines. They just closed up shop and reopened under another name.

 

Why don't you have a contact to call at the FMCSA or your local office?

 

Who gave the drivers the login info to the ghost account?

 

Thanks for the tag. I will try to add some value here as I have seen this same situation a time or two.

To the OP, the best advice has already been given in this thread. First and foremost document all your communication. Try to get written replies to your emails. Second, as the compliance person for this motor carrier you are condoning the illicit activity each day you allow it to continue. Cut off the extra accounts immediately. Either senior management will understand or they will terminate your contract. Either way it must be done and it will show where they stand on coming into compliance.

This is critical, you must take action to protect yourself. I am involved in defending a motor carrier that had some critical safety and compliance deficiencies that resulted in contributing to a severe crash. Their former contract compliance consultant, both personally and the company they were employed by, are named co-defendants and are also being named in counterclaim suits for gross negligence because they either provided bad advice or failed to make mention of some of the illicit activity thereby condoning it by not taking corrective action. You are in the same position and could find yourself on the wrong side of a lawsuit should something happen.

Now, as for penalties. The FMCSA publishes a list of fines based on each violation. Typical ranges for what you have mentioned are $2,500-$12,000 per occurance, and each day/each driver is a seperate occurance. This adds up quickly, and can result in more than civil penalties. I know of safety directors, dispatchers, drivers and managers in prison for their roles in deliberately falsifying log books.

Regulations

UFA Fine Assessment Version 4.0 Software; Calculating Amounts of Civil Penalties for Violations of Regulations, 78 Fed. Reg. 54365 | FMCSA

What Happens if I Don't Comply With Regulations? | FMCSA

For specific cases you can do an ad hoc search of US Department of Transportation enforcement activities, including civil or criminal penalties levied.

Bottom line, as a safety professional it is your duty to take immediate action to stop further violations of applicable regulations. If you can't, or the company will not comply, then you need to remove yourself from representing them.

Here is a quick search of the DOT Office of Inspector General showing a few trucking executives that were sent to prison for their role. There are hundreds of these stories if you do a simple google search, even a few in the threads here on TTR.

https://www.oig.dot.gov/library-item/28801


Last thought, someone in the thread said the drivers do not face any penalties for their action. That is patently false. Any violation discovered during an audit, compliance review or other departmental investigation can be acted upon by the DOT or their state enforcement partner.

Drivers submitting known false logs are just as culpable as the motor carrier that accepts them. The only out for the driver is if they can prove they were coerced into participating in the falsification scheme. Driver fines range from $250 up to $2,500 as civil penalties and jail time as a criminal penalty.

Hope this helps.

 

Just the way I am personally I mind my own business and I would look the other way. That said, if they get caught it would be a hefty fine for deliberate violations of that nature and even possibly jail time.

My uncle was a lifetime owner operator. He knew another owner operator got busted by an undercover driver. The driver, this pour down and out guy just trying to feed his family, really needed his logs altered just a bit. Please can you help me out just this once. He did it, because he felt compassionate towards the guy he didn’t even want to. Boom, busted it was an undercover driver.

I don’t think he did jail time but he got years of probation and a hefty fine.