FMSCA slams door shut on Indiana trucking company

[saddlesore]

Land Line Magazine: The Business Magazine for Professional Truckers

2/8/2012
FMSCA slams door shut on Indiana trucking company
By Sandi Soendker, editor-in-chief

The list of safety violations reads like a rap sheet of trucking “deadly sins.” In the past four months 26 road inspections of an Indiana trucking company netted 10 overweight citations, 21 violations for drivers with insufficient English skills, 12 violations of drivers operating without a CDL – and more.

It’s no surprise that U & D Service Inc., a trucking company based in Indianapolis, got swatted on Monday, Feb. 6, with a regulatory two-by-four wielded by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

The company, a “new entrant carrier” that commenced business in May 2011, hauls general freight, produce and refrigerated cargo. According to the FMCSA, it has 44 vehicles and 43 drivers.

After U & D “blatantly” ignored warnings, FMCSA ordered the company to immediately cease all transportation services in or affecting interstate commerce, declaring it an “imminent hazard” to public safety. This order follows an extensive review of the company’s operations, which found multiple federal safety violations in a continuous pattern.

FMCSA ordered U & D immediately shut down after agency investigators discovered that the company was using drivers who did not possess valid CDLs, or read and speak the English language sufficiently to safely operate a commercial vehicle on U.S. roads.

According to the U.S. DOT’s out-of-service order, the Indiana State Police found that many of the U & D drivers could not answer basic questions such as “where are you going” and “where are you coming from.” In more than one case, ISP told a driver employed by U&D he was out of service and could not leave the inspection area. The driver responded by starting the engine and driving away.

FMCSA may also take enforcement action against the non-CDL-holding drivers, including civil penalties and/or driver disqualifications.

Calls made to U & D on Tuesday, Feb. 7, by Land Line were unsuccessful.
Copyright © OOIDA

 

[Duck]

There is/was a company called Kozy's based in Orland Park, IL that oughta be shut down for the same reason.

I don't know how many trucks they have, or what the odds are that I would run into them twice, and both times their drivers were asking me for help with something they should know how to do.

The first time I encountered one of them was at a LaGrou warehouse in Des Plaines, IL. The driver could barely speak English and was asking for help getting his old dilapidated Volvo started. He was loaded and couldn't get the truck started. I tried it and couldn't get it started either, couldn't figure out what the problem was. But the clear glass fuel filter looked filthy. I told him to call his company and send out a fix-it guy.
5 minutes later he knocks on my truck holding his cell phone and says "English... not good ... you speak ... dispatcher". I was wide-eyed, but I took his phone and talked to his dispatcher, who was actually rude to me. All I was doing was trying to explain to the guy that his truck wouldn't start and he needs a repair truck sent out. The dispatcher asked me to check a fuse that was on top of the battery box. I pulled it out with pliers, 50 amp fuse was good. Dispatcher wanted me to open the hood and check the fuel injector rail for pressure and I said "look, ... I'm not your driver. I'm not working on your truck. I'm only on this phone because your driver doesn't f***ing speak English enough to tell you that he needs a f***ing repair truck sent out because your piece of **** truck won't start!" Dude said "FINE" and hung up on me.

Another time I was SLEEPING at the TA at exit 10, I-70 in Ohio and a Kozy's driver woke me up and when I answered the door he stuck a CAT scale in my face and said "no understand, steer heavy". He was 12,900 on the steers and only about 32 on the drives. Trailer could've handled another ton or so but the tandems were all the way forward.
Before I did anything I looked at his tires. They were rated for 6500 lbs each, but the tag in the drivers side doorway said the front axle was rated for 12,300.
It was only about 40 min before my alarm was set to go off, so I went ahead and got out to teach those two east-European immigrants how to slide their 5th wheeel. It was an air-release 5th wheel lock, but the plastic air line had a hole in it where it had been chafing on the steel where it crossed through a hole in a frame crossmember. As a result, it wouldn't build up enough pressure to unlock the pins. I tapped the pins with a hammer hoping it was just the pressure on them it couldn't overcome, but they popped right back out when I hit them. So I grabbed my roll of electrical tape and wrapped it around the leaking air line and though it was still leaking terribly, it managed to build enough pressure in the cylinder to retract the pins. They slid the 5th wheel and re-weighed and had to hunt me down in the bathroom where I was scrubbing the grease off my hands, to show me the re-weigh receipt and ask if it was legal yet. Yes, it was legal.

I can understand these guys being baffled by the mechanical issues, but for the one guy not to be able to speak English well enough to communicate with his own boss, and for the other two to not even know if their weights were legal is pathetic. I don't know how these guys ever got a CDL.

But Illinois does have a history of giving CDL licenses out to unqualified people under the now imprisoned ex Governor George H Ryan.

 

[Mr. Q]

The first paragraph of the news article reads like something that you would see on a silly satirical website. Don't most of these companies know that they risk heavy fines, forced shutdowns, and possibly jail time for not following federal law?

Apparently it's all a huge joke for some still. :nono:

 

[Rigjockey]

[MENTION=7569]Rubber Duck[/MENTION] . You went above and beyond ! I don't mind helping a fellow driver but with the exaples you provided ,I would have tell them to get the **** away from me .

 

[Racer X 69]

I don't know how these guys ever got a CDL.

They bought a box of Cracker Jack. It was the prize inside.

 

[Duck]

@Rubber Duck . You went above and beyond ! I don't mind helping a fellow driver but with the examples you provided, I would have tell them to get the **** away from me .

I don't mind helping people out, even idiots, if it's something I can handle or have specific expertise regarding the particular problem they're having. But you're right, I probably should have told them to go F*** themselves.

 

[SweetDaddy]

I don't mind helping people out, even idiots, if it's something I can handle or have specific expertise regarding the particular problem they're having. But you're right, I probably should have told them to go F*** themselves.

I wood help also I. Wood collect info on the truk like tag number dot number trlr tag number
and give a little time too find the state attorney general

The state police, of the state they reside in

Then I wood make a few calls up the federal chain. Too

 

[rebel]

I don't mind helping people out, even idiots, if it's something I can handle or have specific expertise regarding the particular problem they're having. But you're right, I probably should have told them to go F*** themselves.

Me too.
But it's only worth it if you can do it in their native language.
The look on their face is priceless.

 

[Racer X 69]

Me too.
But it's only worth it if you can do it in their native language.
The look on their face is priceless.

Whenever I learn a language other than English, the first words I learn are the obscene ones.

Always.

 

[Rigjockey]

Whenever I learn a language other than English, the first words I learn are the obscene ones.

Always.

LOL,Thats a given . Everyone wants to teach the bad words first. More times than not it comes in handy !

 

[patriciajnsn]

I prefer using sign language for certain words.

 

[SweetDaddy]

Me too.
But it's only worth it if you can do it in their native language.
The look on their face is priceless.

That's what the World Wide Web is 4 rite

I love the innerboob its gott all them things on
was checking out this site the other day for spanish slang and cus words

Also these are the companies tht FMCSA NEEDS TOO GO AFTER
NOT THT IAM A FAN OF THE FEDERAL GUBBMINT

ITS PROPER AND NECESSARY FOR THESE TYPES OF COMPANIES

 

[truckerdrl]

Duck , man you rock, you helped them and you are a great guy, but to have to read what happend just made me sick, these things shouldn't be happening
it's scaring to know those guys are going down the highway, mite not even be able to read english signs, Watch out Folks, I'm sure more is to come...

 

[Duck]

Me too.
But it's only worth it if you can do it in their native language.
The look on their face is priceless.

I don't speak Russian.

 

[Sinister]

Guess I better go get a CDL...

 

[Duck]

Duck , man you rock, you helped them and you are a great guy, but to have to read what happend just made me sick, these things shouldn't be happening
it's scaring to know those guys are going down the highway, mite not even be able to read english signs, Watch out Folks, I'm sure more is to come...

I got in trouble once for lending a helping hand. The boss was furious.

It was 15 below outside and I was at the Flying J in Sioux Falls, SD. This guy with those hard plastic coiley air hoses was trying to leave, and halfway through a turn, his red air line snapped in half because it was brittle in the cold. His trailer brakes set and he was blocking half the lot and people couldn't get out unless they made a tight U-turn, which was impossible because the steering wheel holders with their CBs turned off would get in the way so a guy couldn't back up to turn around.

We tried several things to try to at least get it aired up enough to at least move the trailer, but it didn't work. Did I mention it was -15 degrees outside? I couldn't even get duct tape to stick, and I was losing dexterity in my fingers because they were so cold.

There was a Peterbilt or KW dealer or something less than a mile away and they were only going to be open for another 20 minutes, so I told the guy to un-hook and bobtail to go get his air lines replaced with rubber ones, and I un-hooked from mine and used my truck to hook up to his and back it up into a parking spot.

Another driver from my company who had watched the entire scene from the warmth and comfort of his truck cab and didn't bother helping, called dispatch to tell them what a "great guy" they had in tractor number 440. Then I get a call from the big boss chewing me out for 20 minutes because of "blah blah blah, liability, blah blah blah".

 

[Sinister]

"No good deed goes unpunished" -Murphy

 

[rebel]

I don't speak Russian.

"edy vu jopa" (soft j, long o)

Phonetically, I have a hard enough time with this keyboard without trying it in cryllic.
The maintenance guy is Russian.