Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/667099
20 commercial carrier journal | april 2016 JOURNAL NEWS Marten ordered to pay driver $100K in another refusal-to-haul case M arten Transport (CCJ Top 250, No. 50) has been ordered by a federal judge to pay a former driver more than $100,000 in back wages and damages after allegedly forcing the driver to resign. Brandon Hopper claims he was "confronted and baited" by the Mondovi, Wis.-based refrigerated hauler to resign in July 2013 after he refused to haul two allegedly overweight loads and three other loads because he would have been in violation of hours-of-service regulations. He was awarded $50,000 in lost pay and $50,000 in punitive damages by U.S. Department of Labor Administrative Judge Christine Kirby. The order is similar to another issued earlier this year by DOL in which Marten was ordered to pay former driver Cedric Sinkfield more than $50,000 in back wages and dam- ages after firing him for refusing an overweight load. Marten says Hopper's firing was based on patterns of poor work ethic and missed load assignments. The company claims he resigned on his own terms in 2013 because he had been reassigned to drive in a different region that he didn't like. Marten also claims in its court-filed response that the loads Hopper refused were within legal weight limits. The company says the other refused loads in question would not have caused him to violate hours regulations. Judge Kirby ruled the loads Hopper refused to carry were overweight, according to weigh-ins done at a Cat scale less than a mile from the Marten terminal where Hopper picked up the loads, so his refusal was protected by federal law. Kirby also ruled Hopper was legally protected when he refused loads due to on-duty time constraints, writing that his dispatcher at the time agreed that he'd be over his 11-hour drive-time limit if he accepted the loads. – James Jaillet CVSA to FMCSA: High number of exemptions burdening inspectors T he burden being placed on roadside inspectors by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's grow- ing number of exemptions granted to drivers and carriers is becoming excessive, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance says. In a letter penned to FMCSA last month, CVSA Executive Director Collin Mooney said there were more than 20 exemp- tion applications or renewal requests granted in 2015, includ- ing some for vehicle equipment, hours of service and more. "Due to the amount of exemptions allowed by FMCSA in the past year, an excessive burden is being placed on inspec- tors to ensure all active exemptions are being followed prop- erly," Mooney says in the letter. "This puts an undue training burden on agencies that must be diligent in informing all inspectors of the new exemptions and ensuring they under- stand and apply the exemptions properly." Mooney says that with the allowance of such a large number of exemptions, "the likelihood of achieving a level of safety equivalent to, or greater than, the level that is expected by the current regulation is in jeopardy," and that there is a possibil- ity that "roadside inspectors will no longer accurately enforce the regulations, or may stop enforcing regulations altogether." Mooney says CVSA doesn't object to the exemptions on an individual basis, but added that exemptions "complicate the enforcement process, causing confusion and inconsistency in enforcement," thus undermining uniformity in enforcement. Mooney suggests that FMCSA removing or limiting exemp- tions would eliminate the confusion and inconsistency in enforcement, which "would benefit both the industry and the enforcement community." – Matt Cole Marten Transport said it disagrees with the ruling to award a driver $50,000 in lost pay and $50,000 in punitive damages and plans to appeal. CVSA says FMCSA's exemptions 'complicate the enforcement process, causing confusion and inconsistency.'