Virginia trucking company faces $40 million FMCSA indictment

[kscarbel2]

Land Line (OOIDA)  /  March 28, 2017

A trucking company in Virginia and four of its executives were indicted in a U.S. District Court on March 16 on 126 counts including more than 50 counts each of false statements and falsifying records.

The trucking company was hired by the United States Postal Service to transport mail for more than half a billion dollars over the past 10 years.

Since 1999, Gerald Beam, Garland Beam, Shaun Beam and Nickolas Kozel of Beam Bros. Trucking either encouraged or required employees to violate Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regulations, including hours-of-service regs, according to federal court documents. This was done by planning trips that could not be completed within HOS regs and encouraging drivers to falsify records of duty status.

Additionally, Beam Bros. Trucking did not pay drivers for “on-duty” time as required by the Service Contract Act (SCA). SCA requires subcontractors hired by the U.S. government to pay employees for each hour or portion of an hour worked at a rate no less than minimum wage. According to SCA regulations, this includes waiting time. Only periods of time when an employee is “completely relieved of duty and long enough for him or her to effectively use that time for their own purposes” are considered “off-duty” when working under SCA.

According to court documents, drivers for Beam Bros. Trucking may not have been aware of the SCA pay plan. Drivers were told they would not be paid for short rest periods, waiting for loads, etc. An indictment claims drivers were not informed of SCA pay requirements. Beam Bros. Trucking prevented drivers who were aware of SCA from sharing that information with fellow drivers and government agencies.

Since the egregious cover-up of driver pay and violations of FMCSA regulations was done under a government contract, Beam Brothers was charged with Conspiracy to Commit an Offense Against the United States, among the many other charges.

The indictment is seeking at least $40 million from Beam Brothers Trucking and the four named defendants.

[41chevy]

There was a Federal indictment against them in 2013 at their Crawford Pa Facility for the same thing and the Feds shut them down. Yet they still get the same Fed contracts in a different state. .

https://www.gobytrucknews.com/federal-raid-on-mount-crawford-trucking-company-for-too-long-hours

Edited March 29, 2017 by 41chevy

[carlotpilot]

Life's gonna be miserable around there. However, they are still in operation.

[BillyT]

I worked for a us mail contractor before deregulation 1975, at that time each run was assigned so many hours to complete usually a more than reasonable time! You had to be paid at least postal scale + whatever the cost of benefits was (about two dollars an hrs at the time) this was to prevent contractors from paying low wages and encouraging the postal service to hire contractors instead of union employees! The company Waite Inc was running worn out equipment and preparing to go out of business! So I broke down several times but never got paid for " down time" There was probably something in the contract providing breakdown pay but I was never told about it!

The trucking industry by its very nature  has always attracted the most unethical businesspersons and always will! Any of you older members remember Midwestern Distribution out of Ft Scott Kansas, or North American Van Lines "New Products" Division? They basically invented and refined the concept of " lease.purchase" to the detriment of the lessor of course!

[41chevy]

21 hours ago, carlotpilot said:

Life's gonna be miserable around there. However, they are still in operation.

Nah, they still has 5 more eastern terminals to operate from. The sheer amount of Federal "issues" they have beaten over the past 15 years would make the Teflon Don or Hillary  jealous..

[carlotpilot]

1 hour ago, BillyT said:

I worked for a us mail contractor before deregulation 1975, at that time each run was assigned so many hours to complete usually a more than reasonable time! You had to be paid at least postal scale + whatever the cost of benefits was (about two dollars an hrs at the time) this was to prevent contractors from paying low wages and encouraging the postal service to hire contractors instead of union employees! The company Waite Inc was running worn out equipment and preparing to go out of business! So I broke down several times but never got paid for " down time" There was probably something in the contract providing breakdown pay but I was never told about it!

The trucking industry by its very nature  has always attracted the most unethical businesspersons and always will! Any of you older members remember Midwestern Distribution out of Ft Scott Kansas, or North American Van Lines "New Products" Division? They basically invented and refined the concept of " lease.purchase" to the detriment of the lessor of course!

bill     you said a mouthfull there   i never was involved with either but was very familiar with their shenanigans       do you remember elbar and crowbar  out of horizon city texas

Edited March 30, 2017 by carlotpilot