Tag: coercion rule

Hours of Service

Hours changes and personal conveyance, coercion, rates

Reps from CVSA, FMCSA discuss combating coercion as the hours of service rule's new flexibility is set for Sept. 29. Read more and watch here on Overdrive.

September 3, 2020

Business

How to file a coercion or harassment complaint

Filing a coercion complaint can be done via the FMCSA’s National Consumer Complaint Database in the “Driver” section. Also here, a look at the concentration of coercion complaints, by state, over the four years the Coercion Rule has been in place.

December 19, 2019

Business

Righteous whistleblower or ‘disgruntled employee’?

A dispute between 30-year veteran driver Kevin Hosea and the small-fleet employer who fired him earlier this year shows the complexity of coercion-related cases. The fleet owner denies allegations of coercion.

December 17, 2019

Business

Parties other than carriers now subject to enforcement under the coercion rule

One standout aspect of the coercion rule is that it marked the first time the FMCSA gained some authority to investigate and fine shippers and receivers not already under its regulatory purview. The rule also broadened agency authorities over brokers. Results, however, are a decidedly mixed bag four years in.

December 12, 2019

Business

Drivers citing coercion face an uphill battle

While coercion complaint filing might be straightforward, resolving a complaint is anything but. The process can drag for months, and protection for complainants is impossible if the coercive act is what’s investigated. Add the absence of monetary award and possible work disruption, and there’s no shortage of disincentives for blowing the whistle.

December 11, 2019

Business

UPS Freight fined after firing driver who refused to drive without a required ELD

OSHA ordered UPS Freight to pay the driver $15,273 in compensatory damages, $30,000 in punitive damages and approximately $2,700 in back wages plus interest. The unnamed driver was fired for refusing to drive without an ELD, and his termination was later modified to be a suspension, according to OSHA.

December 11, 2019

Business

The irony of e-logging and coercion: Complaints on a steady rise since mandate

Coercion complaints filed by drivers with FMCSA have gone up every year since the rule prohibiting coercion took effect in January 2016, more than doubling by the third year. That’s in spite of, or because of, another rule that same year, the ELD mandate.

December 10, 2019

Business

Cracks in the system: Blowing the whistle on coercion

In the more than four years since FMCSA’s driver protection rule took effect, results have been indirect at best, minimal at worst, when drivers report they’ve been pressured to violate regs.

December 9, 2019

Voices

POLL: Have you filed a coercion complaint under the rule protecting drivers?

Proposed in tandem with the ELD mandate, the prohibition against entities coercing or attempting to coerce drivers to violate a regulation with threats of punitive action (withholding work/payment, disciplinary measures, and the like) has been active since early 2016. Have you ever filed a complaint with FMCSA under the rule?

September 26, 2019

Channel 19

From within or without? — pressure to run over hours in the wake of the ELD mandate

Drivers face increased risks in the ELD era for any hours violations — hence more pushback against pressure to violate, met with one of those “equal and opposite reactions.” Yet not everyone agrees that external pressures to violate the regs are being truly felt, as one trucker commented: “The pressure I feel from the ELD is not from management. The pressure I feel is from me, the driver.”

March 28, 2019

Channel 19

How to blow the whistle on problem shippers/receivers when delays force violations

A way to hold shippers and receivers accountable for delaying you into an hours violation that will require drivers doing something that hasn’t exactly been easy for a fed-up group of late: working with the DOT and FMCSA. (And FMCSA holding to their part of the bargain.)

March 29, 2018

Business

‘Coercion’ definition, stiffer penalties key changes in FMCSA’s coercion rule work

The exact definition FMCSA is using to define driver coercion and what led it to the definition and to the higher fines associated with such violations.

December 8, 2015