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Swift to Pay CRST $15 Million in Damages Over Driver Recruiting |  | 
This Is CRST's Third Poaching Lawsuit
 A lawsuit CRST Expedited Inc. filed against Swift Transportation Co. that alleged Swift “poached” drivers was one of three such challenges CRST has lodged against competitors, but is so far the only one that has resulted in a financial penalty. “The reality is we ended up in the courtroom with Swift. But I prefer to spend my dollars and resources on improving our business,” said Hugh Ekberg, CEO of Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based CRST, in an interview with Transport Topics.
The $15 million in damages assessed against Arizona-based Swift by an Iowa federal jury in July were in response to allegations that Swift “intentionally and improperly” recruited more than 200 drivers still under contract with CRST after completing their training. The allegations CRST lodged against competitors in the other lawsuits were nearly identical. One of them, filed in 2016 against TransAm Trucking Inc. of Olathe, Kan., was dismissed in July of 2018 after a federal judge granted TransAm a summary judgment. The other, filed in 2017 against Arizona-based Knight Transportation, was dismissed in March at the request of both parties. CRST has appealed the TransAm case. In the Swift case, CRST alleged that Swift hired the drivers, trained by CRST, who were still contractually obligated to work for CRST for 10 months. During the six-day civil trial, Swift denied that it interfered with CRST’s drivers, but on July 23 the jury awarded CRST $7.5 million for unjust enrichment, $5 million for punitive damages and $3 million for compensatory damages. Ekberg told Transport Topics that CRST spends considerable time and money training drivers at its school and on the road with a driver leader. In its lawsuit against Swift, CRST noted that there are two drivers in the cab for all its longhaul trucks to maximize a truck’s “rolling hours.” That mode of operation requires the company to recruit and train more drivers than the typical motor carrier, according to court documents. “We’re producing about 3,500 drivers a year through our school,” Ekberg said. “Running a training school obviously puts value into housing, meals and training to get a new CDL.” Because there is no cost to the driver, CRST asked drivers to sign a contract promising to stay with the company for at least 10 months. “That’s the source of our litigation between Swift and CRST, that we have a signed agreement, a contract that that driver that will stay with CRST for the 10 months,” Ekberg said. “After that they are completely free to go anywhere else. Our preference is that they stay with us. But we all know the nature of this industry where there’s lots of turnover and there are driver shortages, so we’re all working for ways to get drivers into our fleets.” In its 2017 Swift civil complaint, CRST said it had experienced an increase in the number of employment verification requests it was receiving from Swift for drivers that were in the 10-month restrictive term outlined in the employment contract. “Preliminary investigation revealed that in 2016 CRST received approximately 150 such employment verification requests from Swift for drivers who were within the 10-month restrictive term of their individual contracts,” CRST’s complaint said. “By recruiting CRST’s drivers, Swift is able to reduce the need to separately train new drivers and obtain the labor of newer truck drivers at lower costs than more experienced drivers that would demand a higher market rate for their services.” In its answer to the complaint, Swift had argued that CRST’s claims should be barred, in whole or in part, because some of CRST’s drivers worked for other carriers prior to working for Swift after leaving employment with CRST, creating an “intervening event.” “As such, there is no causation, as defendant could not have interfered with the employment contracts at issue,” Swift said. “Their point was that contract is between CRST and the driver, and if the driver chooses to leave the contract that’s the driver’s choice,” Ekberg said. “But we were pleased that the jury determined the contract was enforceable, not just between CRST and the driver, but that other industry players need to respect and honor that contract.” Swift did not comment on the case at press time.
Missing trucker found dead for days in cab, load of meat stolen | |
 Texas police are investigating after a semi truck driver is believed to have been dead for several days in the cab of his truck after the load he was scheduled to deliver was stolen. Houston police say that they were called to a location on 175 McCarty Road around 1 p.m. on Saturday, August 3, where they found an unnamed 48 year old truck driver deceased inside in his truck in an “advanced state of decomposition.” Police also said that the contents of the trailer were missing. After investigating, police learned that the truck driver had left a shipping facility in Laredo on July 29 with a load of frozen meat. He was scheduled to deliver the load in Houston on July 30, but he never arrived at his destination. The owners of the truck had reportedly been searching for the missing driver since he missed his July 30 drop off in Houston. The Houston Chronicle reports that the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences is still working to determine the cause of the man’s death. If you have information on the incident, you’re asked to call the Houston Police Department Homicide Division at 713-308-3600. Another highway chase ends badly for trucker | |
A trucker led cops on yet another chase, the third in the past week. Unlike the previous two, this one early Friday, Aug. 2, in eastern Alabama, reached high speeds and ended with the truck crashing. The chase began when police tried to make a traffic stop of a 2001 Mack with no trailer. But, it seemed the driver, 49-year-old Phillip Dale Rice of Roanoke, Alabama had other ideas and took off. Police wound up pursuing Rice over several highways in four counties. It ended when Rice’s truck hit spike strips police laid down and the truck eventually lost its front tires, continuing just on the rims, according to media reports. Rice eventually lost control of the truck and crashed into the median near Hurtsboro. Rice is said to have resisted arrest and police used a taser to subdue him. He now faces charges of attempting to elude and reckless endangerment from both Roanoke and Chambers counties Other jurisdictions are expected to add their own charges. In all the chase covered 75 miles. Earlier in the week truckers in West Virginia and Iowa led authorities on chases along interstate highways. Both were arrested, including one who had to be subdued by police using a stun gun. Dana provides e-Propulsion system for Alberta project | |
North American driveline component manufacturer, Dana, is providing its Spicer Electrified e-Propulsion solution with integrated TM4 Sumo HP motor-inverter system for prime movers hauling freight between Calgary and Edmonton in the Alberta province of Canada. The effort is part of Alberta’s Zero-Emissions Truck Electrification Collaboration (AZETEC) project aimed at designing and manufacturing hydrogen fuel-cell electric hybrid heavy-duty trucks with extended range. “Dana is pleased to have been selected as a key partner for this enterprising hydrogen fuel project,” said President of Dana Commercial Vehicle Driveline Technologies, Mark Wallace. “It marks another step in the innovation continuum as the industry transitions to zero-emission transportation. “The consortium partners share a common vision in advancing clean technologies, and we welcome the opportunity to provide Spicer electrodynamic solutions as part of these collective efforts.” Dana’s custom Spicer e-System is optimised for the Canadian market and has a hauling capacity of 140,000lbs (63,500kg). According to Dana it features a compact design that reduces weight, allowing for more hydrogen fuel storage. Operated by Trimac Transportation and Bison Transport, the combinations being used for the project are 64-ton Gross Combination Mass (GCM) B-train (B-double) tractor-trailer units said to be capable of travelling up to 700km between refuelling stops. The $15 million project received funding from Emissions Reduction Alberta, which committed $7.3 million through its Best Challenge initiative. The trucks are expected to haul approximately 12 million tonnes of freight for the AZETEC project. Trucking Industry Makes Another Run at Killing Federal Excise Tax | |
A broad coalition is making another attempt to repeal a century-old excise tax on heavy-duty trucks after failing twice in recent years to move the legislation through Congress. The tax raises about $3 billion annually for the Highway Trust Fund, depending on truck sales and the economy. This time, a group that includes road builders and trucking, logistics and manufacturing companies is supporting H.R. 2381. It has 23 bipartisan co-sponsors, and the coalition is working hard to gather votes from both sides of the aisle. “For the first time, broad segments of America’s trucking industry are uniting to repeal the FET to modernize the truck fleet and promote new, cleaner and safer heavy-duty trucks and trailers,” said Jodie Teuton, chairwoman of American Truck Dealers, a division of the National Automobile Dealers Association. PUSHING LEGISLATIONThe group calls itself the Modernize the Truck Fleet coalition. It recently sent a letter urging repeal to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. Reps. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., and Collin Peterson, D-Minn, introduced the legislation. The same legislation is working its way through the Senate. “This legislation is a good step forward,” the coalition said. It urged Congress to adopt funding alternatives that are user-based and provide more consistent revenue to fund the Highway Trust Fund. It said such a change might be part of a wider highway infrastructure bill. Lawmakers introduced similar legislation to repeal the tax in 2012 and 2017. Both efforts failed. COST PER TRUCKThe industry calls the 12 percent tax the FET. It adds $12,000 to $22,000 to the cost of a heavy-duty truck, depending on the vehicle. It is the highest of any federal excise tax levied by Congress, according to American Truck Dealers. The group represents more than 1,800 commercial truck dealers in the U.S. Lawmakers enacted the tax to help pay the cost of fighting World War I more than a century ago. The truck tax has grown from 3 percent, when it was incorporated into the Highway Trust Fund in 1955, to 12 percent today. The government charges the tax on new sales of trucks with a gross vehicle weight rating, or GVWR, of more than 33,000 pounds. The coalition is arguing that ending the FET would encourage fleets to replace older trucks with those that are more fuel-efficient and safer. REDUCING POLLUTIONAlthough medium and heavy-duty trucks account for just 4 percent of vehicles on the road, they consume more than 22 billion gallons of diesel fuel and travel over 200 billion miles per year, the coalition said in its letter to lawmakers. “This activity means small improvements to the truck fleet can yield large results,” the letter said. A typical truck in the heaviest Class 8 weight segment gets about 6.5 mpg. But new trucks are about 10 percent more efficient. “Since 2010, new, more efficient diesel trucks have saved 101 million barrels of crude oil,” the coalition said. Those trucks also are cleaner. Over the past three decades, cleaner fuel and advanced engines have combined to reduce emissions of oxides of nitrogen by 97 percent and particulate matter emissions by 98 percent, the coalition said. “Since 2010, new, more efficient diesel trucks have saved 101 million barrels of crude oil,” it said. The average age of trucks on the road is about 10 years. New trucks are often equipped with airbags and a suite of driver-assistance technologies. These include automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control with braking, lane-departure warning and lane-keeping assist blind-warning. Trucking school owner pleads guilty to $4.2 million VA fraud scheme | |
 A California truck driving school owner has pled guilty to federal charges related to a multi-million dollar scheme to defraud the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. Fifty-two year old Emmit Marshall, the owner and president of Chatsworth, California-based Alliance School of Trucking (AST), pled guilty to five felony counts of wire fraud, according to a July 29 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. Authorities say that Marshall participated in a scheme to defraud the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs out of $4.2 million by falsely claiming that veterans participated in truck driver training classes at AST. According to the Department of Justice, Marshall and his co-defendant Robert Waggoner, 56, recruited veterans to enroll in AST as part of the Post-9/11 GI Bill. Per the Post-9/11 GI Bill, the VA paid AST directly for tuition and other expenses for eligible veterans enrolled in the school while paying the veteran directly for housing and some some other expenses. From the news release:
Authorities also say that once they became aware of the investigation, Waggoner and Marshall removed and destroyed fraudulent documents from their student files. While the scheme played out between the end of 2011 through April 2015, the VA paid out $2.3 million in tuition and fee payments to AST for students who didn’t attend classes, authorities say. During that same period, the VA also reportedly paid out $1.9 million to veterans who didn’t attend the trucking school. Investigating agencies include the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Office of Inspector General, the U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Marshall will face sentencing November 18, 2019. He faces a statutory maximum sentence of 100 years in federal prison. Source of article and more great articles click here
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Heavy haulers transport two-story tall crates through Houston | |
 A team of more than 100 workers is hard at work helping to maneuver a massive oversized load through Houston, Texas, area roadways. Over the weekend, crews with Smith Specialized Logistics have been working with state and local authorities to transport two huge crates containing parts for a drilling platform on a 108 mile journey from Spring Branch to Bayport, Texas. From Bayport Cruise Terminal, the drilling platform is headed to South Korea. The largest of the crates reportedly is 56 feet long, 27 feet high and 24 feet wide. The large load is thought to be one of the biggest to ever pass though Houston and requires more than 30 state troopers and 20 bucket trucks as an escort, according to ABC 13
The move, which is only conducted at night to cut down on traffic disruptions, has not gone totally smoothly. Late Friday night, two motorcycle officers helping to escort the load were injured when a suspected drunk 36 year old motorist drove through a blocked intersection and struck them. CenterPoint Energy has planned short power outages along the oversized load route to allow the crates to safety pass around electrical wires. Portions of the I-45 Gulf Freeway are scheduled to be shut down in both directions on Monday night to accommodate the oversized load. Oregon travel center adds reserved truck parking | |
The Jubitz Travel Center and Truck Stop in Portland, Oregon this week added reserved truck parking. A major truck stop and travel center in the Pacific Northwest now lets drivers reserve truck parking ahead of their arrival. Jubitz Travel Center, which is located on Vancouver Way just off Interstate 5 in Portland, Oregon, now has 18 truck parking spot in its main lot that can be reserved for $15. The company earlier this week said it “is committed to listening to the needs of professional drivers and providing services to make their jobs a little easier” and the ability to reserve parking ahead of time is one way to do that. Jubitz said the majority of its 250 truck parking spots remain free on a first-come, first-served basis. Truckers reserving a space can park any time after 4 p.m. and must leave that space before 3 p.m. the next day. Reservations can only be made using the Parkmobile website. Then:
ParkMobile accepts nationally recognize credit cards. It cannot process AMBEST redemptions or fleet cards. Reserved truck parking spots can be found by turning left when entering the truck parking lot. Reserved spots are marked with signs. Just move it aside and park. If you need assistance moving the sign, Jubitz says to pull into the 15-minute parking area and see a fuel desk attendant. Jubitz also has a driver’s lounge, free wifi, DIY pet washing station, scale, Blue Beacon truck wash, barbershop, cinema, shoe repair, hotel, and several restaurants. Love’s app now helps you plan when, where to shower | |
Trip planning is an essential part of the day for most over-the-road truckers, and part of that process is finding a time and place to take a shower.
The Love’s Travel Stops mobile app can now help you do that. An update to the Love’s Connect app has a new feature called the “busy times” graph. It shows shower traffic based on historic data that each Love’s location typically receives for every hour of the day, according to a statement from the company. The company says the busy times graph idea came from feedback it received from drivers who said they wanted a better way to plan when to stop for a shower. The app already allows drivers to check in for a shower at a Love’s location and skip the fuel desk. “Planning an efficient route is of utmost importance for our customers, which is why we developed this new app feature,” said Jerry Hamm, senior manager of customer technology and innovation. “This is an exciting piece of technology that we believe will improve our customer’s experience as they drive across the country.” Drivers can download the Love’s Connect app here. Schneider Bulk launches electronic report form | |
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Transportation and logistics provider Schneider has launched an electronic Driver Report Form (eDRF) in its bulk division to improve the driver and customer experience. “This new tool dramatically improves what had been a tedious and time-consuming experience for both drivers and shippers in the liquid commodity bulk transportation segment,” the company said. The eDRF replaces paper filing, required at most pickups and deliveries. It includes many time-saving advantages over the paper report. “Pre-populated fields created at order creation improve the accuracy of the report, and the electronic version is available on the Schneider portal seconds after a driver submits the completed form from their tablet,” the company said. Schneider has been an early adopter of many technology developments. Most recently, the company began rolling out Samsung Galaxy tablets to drivers. Two Texas truckers and a state worker sold hundreds of fake commercial driver’s licenses | |
A federal grand jury indicted three Texas men – two truckers and a state worker – in connection with a scheme to sell commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) without the drivers having to take the required test, according to a report from the San Antonio Express-News. The indictment, which was handed down July 24 in a San Antonio court, said Alonzo Blackman, 62, a commercial driver’s license examiner with the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), took bribes from two truckers – Marino Maury Diaz-Leon, 52, of San Antonio, and Fernando Guardado Vazquez, 40, of Austin. The number of fraudulent CDLs issued by Blackman was 215, of which 197 went to Cuban nationals, 11 to U.S. citizens, two to Mexican nationals, and one each to Dominican, Ethiopian, Iraqi, Puerto Rican and Ukranian nationals. Blackman had been a CDL examiner for seven years when DPS suspended him after a federal investigation that arose after a 2018 DPS audit. The 2018 audit found that Blackman “had an unusual number of CDLs being issued.” An investigation by DPS and the Texas Rangers identified more than 200 license holders who had not been scheduled to take the skill test, which consists of an air brake safety inspection and a road test. After he was arrested, Blackman helped authorities obtain videotaped evidence of bribes that Diaz-Leon and Vazquez paid to him, testified Monroe Giese, a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). “[Blackman] was interviewed, and he admitted to accepting bribes to falsely certify that people had passed their skills assessment test, when in fact they had not passed it or hadn’t even shown up for the test,” Giese testified in court July 8. The 215 CDLs in question have been canceled, according to the FBI. The FBI did not disclose which Texas DPS office Blackman worked for, but said he has been with the state agency since 2012. No other DPS employees have been implicated. The Texas DPS issues and renews driver licenses and identification cards. The FBI did not disclose how much Blackman was paid for issuing the fraudulent CDLs. Blackman is not in custody, but must appear in court August 11. Vazquez and Diaz-Leon were released on personal recognizance bonds after a district judge granted them bail. Prosecutors argued that the two truck drivers – Cuban nationals with legal U.S. residency – are a flight risk. One MacGyver-like repair OK while another is not | |
Improvised taillight Necessity may, as it is so often said, be the mother of invention. However, keep in mind it may not always be acceptable to the cops. Two truckers made some — let’s call them “creative” — repairs recently with varying success. A Colorado trucker replaced a busted taillight with, yes, a bottle of red sports drink, but still got stopped earlier this week by police in Longmont. They did, however, say on their Facebook page, “While we appreciate the ingenuity of this tail light, this is not a permanent solution. Working tail lights prevent accidents.” Still, he got off without a ticket and the cops say they saw the guy at a repair shop getting it fixed. Another trucker was not so lucky. A Pennsylvania trucker driving through New Hampshire with an oversized load was ticketed and his truck placed out of service earlier this month because he was driving down the road with an axle missing its wheel assembly on one side. Jan Joseph Krout, 42, of Penns Creek, Pennsylvania had chained the side of the axle missing its wheel to the trailer’s frame. He told police he thought he only needed four axles when he needed five to haul the modular home, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader. |
Phillip Dale Rice
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