The trucking industry is heavily regulated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).
Over the past 80+ years, the FMCSA has constantly expanded and updated the strict rules all commercial trucking companies and their drivers must comply with. These extensive regulations cover all aspects of trucking safety, including:
- Truck driver qualification standards and licensing requirements
- Details on driver hours of service limits and mandatory rest periods
- Comprehensive vehicle inspection, repair and scheduled maintenance protocols
- Minimum levels of insurance coverage based on cargo type and fleet size
- Mandatory randomized drug and alcohol testing programs
- Accident notification and reporting procedures and time limits
- Company safety rating categories and compliance review audits
Key Trucking Company Legal Obligations
As interstate motor carriers, trucking companies have a number of important legal duties they must fulfill under federal regulations, including:
Truck Driver Qualification and Screening
The FMCSA maintains a detailed list of minimum qualifications that all truck drivers must meet before operating commercial vehicles. This includes being at least 21 years of age and passing rigorous written and driving tests to obtain a commercial driver’s license (CDL).
Companies are required to verify all CDL credentials and driving records prior to hiring new drivers. FMCSA guidance also demands that carriers check potential drivers’ backgrounds for any past criminal activity, substance abuse history or traffic violations.
Negligent hiring of unqualified or dangerous truck drivers can make motor carriers liable in accidents. Companies must also conduct pre-employment drug tests and periodic medical exams on drivers to confirm they are healthy and fit to operate trucks based on DOT physical qualification standards.
Ongoing Driver Supervision and Skill Refreshers
In addition to vetting and entry-level training, trucking companies must provide robust ongoing supervision and education to drivers after they have started working.
The FMCSA recommends that motor carriers continually monitor driver performance and qualifications even once they are on the road. This includes:
- Periodically reviewing driving history reports for any new violations or license suspensions
- Confirming legally required medical exams are kept up to date
- Conducting random audits of hours of service logs to identify violations
- Downloading and analyzing ELD/telemetry data to catch unsafe behaviors like speeding or hard braking
- Implementing formal corrective action procedures to address emerging driver safety problems
Carriers should also be providing supplemental training refreshers for existing company drivers. Recommended topics include updated education on:
- Federal and state regulation changes
- New company safety policies or best driving practices
- Operating procedures during extreme weather
- Accident scene management refreshers
- Technology changes like new ELD systems or truck/trailer modifications
By continually vetting and educating their drivers, motor carriers can help reinforce positive safety behaviors and maximize public roadway safety.
Rigorous Truck Maintenance and Repair Protocols
Given that trucks may cause devastating accidents, it is no surprise that laws and regulations require companies to implement thorough maintenance and repair protocols.
Specific mandated protocols that carriers must comply with include:
- Performing pre-trip and post-trip inspections on all trucks to identify emerging issues
- Conducting thorough annual vehicle inspections to check all mechanical systems, tires, lights and components
- Scheduling routine oil changes, filter changes, chassis lubrication, tire rotations and wheel alignments at specified mileage or time increments
- Making repairs immediately when defects are identified that could affect safety
- Keeping detailed records and invoices for all maintenance activities
Enforcing Driver Hours of Service Rules
To prevent truck driver fatigue, the FMCSA sets strict limitations on when and for how long commercial vehicle operators can drive. Companies bear major responsibilities related to training drivers on these limitations and actively enforcing compliance.
The key aspects of the FMCSA hours of service regulations include:
- 11 Hour Driving Limit – Drivers can’t operate vehicles for more than 11 total hours during a daily work period
- 14-Hour Driving Window – Total on-duty work time must not exceed 14 hours before the mandatory 10-hour break
- 60/70 Hour Rules – Drivers can’t work over 60 hours in 7 days or 70 hours in 8 days
- 30-Minute Rest Breaks – After 8 hours of driving, a 30-minute off-duty break is required before hitting the 11-hour limit
Trucking companies must set up processes to monitor driver logs and ensure they comply with hour limitations. This includes implementing company policies prohibiting off-duty log tampering or falsifications. Drivers found cheating logs or driving excessively fatigued must be disciplined per FMCSA guidance.
How Trucking Company Noncompliance Can Impact Accident Lawsuits
When a truck driver or carrier fails to adhere to the extensive federal safety regulations, it can have a tremendous influence if an accident lawsuit is filed.
Truck accident plaintiffs can use proven regulatory noncompliance to help conclusively demonstrate negligence in court. Also, juries tend to award higher damages when presented with clear evidence that a preventable crash resulted from ignored safety regulations.
Some examples of how rule-breaking can establish fault include:
Hours of Service Violations
If a trucker is found to have exceeded their maximum driving hours limitations and gets into a fatigue-related collision, plaintiffs can easily point to the hours of service violations as provable negligence.
Being overworked without adequate rest demonstrates that the motor carrier should bear principal fault for the crash. Plaintiffs can also subpoena driver logs and GPS tracking data to prove excessive hours were worked.
Prior CSA Violations and Insufficient Corrective Actions
The FMCSA maintains a Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) program that assigns public safety scores and rankings to every registered trucking company. Motor carriers with repeated regulatory violations, crashes or compliance review failures receive unfavorable scores.
If a carrier involved in an accident has a history of prior public CSA violations that were never addressed, plaintiffs can argue this shows entrenched, ongoing negligence.
Plaintiff attorneys can order CSA histories to showcase to juries and judges that companies were aware of systemic safety problems but failed to implement corrective actions like enhanced driver training or vehicle maintenance procedures.
Improper Driver Vetting and Lack of Skills Training
If a trucking company fails to properly screen a new driver’s background, credentials and driving history before allowing them on the road, it represents negligence.
Inadequate licensing validation or not providing mandatory ELDT training courses enables unqualified drivers to operate trucks. This recklessly endangers the public.
Plaintiffs can argue insufficient driver supervision also enabled an incompetent or reckless driver to take out a company truck without management noticing problems or addressing complaints about their dangerous maneuvers.
Evidence of Poor Truck Maintenance and Inspections
When a catastrophic truck breakdown like a tire blowout or failed brakes causes an accident, plaintiff attorneys can request maintenance and inspection records for the truck. Vehicle histories often show a demonstrable pattern of unrepaired defects that carriers negligently ignored.
These documentation trails clearly showcase safety issues reported by drivers or found during inspections that should have been fixed under FMCSA repair guidance. Plaintiffs can powerfully showcase these maintenance paperwork and repair invoices to juries as evidence that companies chronically failed to proactively identify and correct serious mechanical deficiencies.
As you can see, federal regulations often form the backbone of negligence claims stemming from truck accidents. However, state and local commercial trucking laws also impose additional requirements that carriers operating across certain regions must adhere to.
State and Local Trucking Regulations
In addition to extensive federal compliance rules, interstate trucking companies must also abide by applicable state and local regulations wherever their routes operate.
Failing to follow these additional regional laws can also help establish negligence after a crash. Some examples include:
Vehicle Size and Weight Limitations
States often set their own legal limitations related to maximum truck length, height, width/girth and total weight. Violations of size and weight rules can lead to catastrophic rollover crashes or bridge and overpass strikes.
Companies are expected to use approved routes and obtain special hauling permits when dimensions or loads exceed thresholds. Negligence is often clear when oversized trucks attempt to use restricted roads and get into crashes.
Highway Work Zone and Construction Area Rules
Many states have enhanced fines, reduced speed limits and prohibited passing zones that apply to large trucks operating in active road construction areas. These strict work zone laws are intended to protect vulnerable construction crews.
When truck drivers fail to follow posted work zone guidance, strike objects or fail to slow down, it demonstrates clear negligence. Plaintiffs can argue flags, signs, channelizing devices and reduced speed limits should have made the driver aware of unusual hazards requiring additional caution.
Seasonal Traction Device Requirements
Northern states with snowy winters often require special mud+snow tires or tire chains to be used on large trucks during hazardous weather events. Truck drivers must proactively install winter traction gear when conditions deteriorate or face fines.
Inadequate traction can cause fully loaded 18-wheelers to jackknife, spin out or slide uncontrollably on highways. Plaintiffs can use weather reports, roadway warnings and chain law activation notices to showcase negligence if a trucker loses control due to lack of winter tires.
Bridge Crossing Restrictions and Detours
Aging bridges often have clearly posted maximum weight limits or prohibitions on simultaneous multiple truck crossings. These warnings are based on structural engineering analysis. Ignoring such marked limitations can lead to catastrophic bridge collapse.
Trucking companies are expected to plot routes avoiding restricted bridges or follow marked detours. Violating weight limits or attempting to cross bridges in parallel shows negligence since warnings are clearly posted at each entrance.
Final Thoughts
Like federal regulations, state and local commercial trucking laws are designed to promote public roadway safety. Interstate carriers must be aware of – and follow – all applicable rules wherever their routes operate.
In accident lawsuits, violations related to crashes can help establish negligence regardless of whether the regulation is federal, state or locally issued.
