The Chartwell Chronicles: Trucking
Case In Point: Recent Developments in Employment Law
Last month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to begin enforcement of English language proficiency (ELP)...more
This week, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced a slew of proposed rule changes—18 in all—designed to streamline operations, reduce unnecessary paperwork, and align regulations with modern...more
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (“FMCSA”) issued an internal policy on May 20, 2025, outlining its approach to English language proficiency (“ELP”) for commercial motor vehicle drivers. This policy is more...more
The numbers are frightening. In recent years, juries have routinely rendered outsized verdicts, a trend attributable in part to social inflation, public sentiment toward corporate defendants, and sophisticated litigation...more
In this era of driver and employee shortages, employers of all kinds - motor - carriers, freight intermediaries and shippers, should be aware of a byzantine array of federal statutes that could confer liability upon them,...more
Motor carriers, brokers, freight forwarders and private fleets that are required to comply with Colorado’s new Large Entity Reporting (“LER”) requirement, a relatively unpublicized new regulatory measure in the State of...more
On January 8, 2025, Governor Mike DeWine signed into law House Bill 403, which enacts § 4513.71 of the Ohio Revised Code and establishes clear dispute resolution protocols to secure expedited release of motor vehicles and...more
The role of independent contractor owner-operators (“ICOOs”) in the trucking industry has a long history as a business model and also as a lightning rod for scrutiny. ...more
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently issued another important ruling for brokers, upholding that a claim for negligent hiring against a freight broker was preempted by the Federal Aviation Administration...more
The Department of Transportation’s operating agencies have announced their random drug and alcohol testing rates for 2025. The rates are the same as 2024, except that PHMSA has increased its random drug testing rate to 50%....more
The regulatory environment is top of mind these days coupled with speculation over potential change. Any attention paid to our obligations for safe and lawful operation is positive as we strive for compliance by our companies...more
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (“FMCSA”) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) on November 20, 2024,titled Transparency in Property Broker Transactions (89 FR 91648). ...more
Breathe In That Rocky Mountain Air: Motor Carriers, Brokers, Freight Forwarders, and Private Fleets Operating in Colorado Face November 30, 2024 Deadline to Comply with State’s New Emissions Reporting Requirements and Avoid...more
Global transportation and logistics services can amount to some of the largest expenses, and even the largest single contracts by spend, for enterprises with high traffic volumes. Among mature buyers and sellers of goods the...more
A Department of Transportation (“DOT”) audit is something that all motor carriers dread. The potential for a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (“FMCSA”) investigator can often have adverse consequences....more
As concerns about environmental degradation and climate change intensify, shippers across a wide variety of industry verticals are seeking ways to make their supply chain operations more environmentally sustainable....more
During a presidential election year, it is very difficult to get both sides of the aisle to agree on anything. However, thus far, the Transportation Security Screening Modernization Act (H.R. 5840) recently passed by the...more
To most Americans, the word “audit” conjures up a visceral fear of the IRS combing through their records and finances. However, to those in the motor carrier industry, “audit” means something much different, but no less...more
Suffice it to say that the past year has been a very good year for brokers; in the courts, that is! While there have been several very favorable preemption decisions across the country, the preemption doctrine is not...more
Accidents on the roadways are an unfortunate reality in the transportation business. Any carrier that has been in the business long enough, or that has reached a sizeable scale, experiences accidents despite a zealous...more
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires that employers pay certain employees one-and-a-half times their regular rate of pay for any hours they work over 40 in a workweek. There are, however, several exemptions from the...more
The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s (CVSA) International Roadcheck (Roadcheck) is scheduled for May 14-16, 2024. Roadcheck is an annual high-visibility, high-volume commercial motor vehicle inspection and regulatory...more
In the movie “Blow,” Johnny Depp complains to the Judge about to sentence him for interstate transportation of marijuana that all he did was take some vegetation across an imaginary line. The Judge did not listen. In a...more
Transportation services providers are increasingly facing new technology-oriented threats in day-to-day business. Recent cyberattacks and the potential for serious disruption from threat actors have drawn the attention of the...more
I am a big student of the FLSA motor carrier exemption and have handled many such cases. I often find that a big obstacle for the employer claiming the exemption is to prove that the drivers are engaged in “interstate...more