JTL ranks among the worst trucking companies for logbook and hours violations

Mike

Well-Known Member
From 2004 into 2006, logbook violations were so widespread at Franklin's JDC Logistics Inc. that the government hit the trucking company with some of the heaviest fines across the industry.

By the fall of 2007, JDC and its affiliates were out of business, leaving debt claims totaling more than $15 million, including medical bills incurred by employees who had no idea they'd been left without insurance coverage in the firm's final months.

As bankruptcy and receivership proceedings wiped away the debt and former workers wrestled with uncovered medical expenses that in some cases totaled thousands of dollars, Jeffrey T. Lorino - JDC's president and a son of owner Tom Lorino - regrouped in the trucking business with another corporation he owns, JTL Carriers LLC.

Now, 3½ years later, JTL ranks among the nation's worst trucking companies for logbook and hours violations. Out of more than 5,600 trucking companies in its group, JTL falls in the bottom 10% in compliance with the rules that dictate how long drivers can work and how they track their hours.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which enforces trucking regulations, groups those rules under a measure it calls "fatigued driving (hours-of-service)." It is one of seven yardsticks the agency uses to monitor the performance of trucking firms.

JTL also recently ranked in the bottom 20% on the "unsafe driving" measure, which includes violations such as speeding and improper lane changes.

The company's track record on the two measures caught the attention of the safety agency, which sent an investigator to Franklin to audit JTL's records in February and March.

The result: The agency is moving to lower the 55-driver firm's overall safety rating from "satisfactory" to "conditional," a status that could deter liability-fearful shippers from doing business with JTL.

"It is very common for shippers to say you can't haul this load unless you have a satisfactory safety rating," said John Hill, who headed the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration from mid-2006 through 2008.

Attempts to interview Jeffrey Lorino, whom the audit report lists as JTL's sole owner, were unsuccessful.

"He told me that he's not going to make any comment right now," JTL safety director Norman Tym said.

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