In the beginning of the year, U.S. regulators had shut down three trucking companies within a month, as they were on the warpath, going after trucking companies with flagrant safety violations.
On Feb. 18, 2015, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced that it had ordered Sorbon Transport, a car-hauling trucking company based out of Aurora, Colorado, off the road and out of service on Feb. 12.
Once the out of service order was made, an investigation followed after a Feb. 6 roadside inspection of a Sorbon tractor-trailer revealed not one, but multiple (serious) maintenance-related violations.
According to the FMCSA, Sorbon had "no effective" maintenance program and on at least one occasion it ordered a driver to continue with inoperable trailer brakes – a terrifying thought for motorists.
Sorbon Refuses to Cooperate with the FMCSA
When asked, Sorbon refused to hand over complete hours-of-service records for its drivers, according to the FMCSA. The incomplete HOS records provided indicated multiple hours-of-service violations, which usually means that drivers were driving for too many hours with inadequate rest.
The FMCSA also said that the trucking company ordered federal investigators to remove themselves from its property and without any reasonable explanation.
During the investigation, federal investigators found that Sorbon's owner previously operated another trucking company, which also had a history of compliance problems, the agency said.
FMCSA Cracks Down on Trucking Companies
In February 2015, the FMCSA shut down another trucking company, JDJD Transportation, based out of Las Vegas, Nevada. The three-truck heavy equipment hauler was ordered off the road.
While the FMCSA has been cracking down on unsafe trucking companies for years, the agency has stepped up its efforts since the launch of the Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) program in 2010.
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