In 2018, there were 1,618 automobile crashes, 105 serious injuries, and 10 deaths in Virginia reported as attributable to cell phone use while driving (the actual number may be higher). See 2018 Virginia Traffic Crash Facts, Virginia DMV, available at https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/safety/crash_data/crash_facts/crash_facts_18.pdf. Richmond drivers have notoriously high rates of accidents, speeding tickets, DUIs, and citations. A recent study by QuoteWizard identified Richmond as the 10th worst driving city in America based on the aforementioned categories. See The Best and Worst Drivers… Read More

Employees who make less than $35,568 are now eligible for overtime pay under a final rule issued in September 2019 by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). The new rate will take effect Jan. 1, 2020. To be exempt from overtime under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employees must be paid a salary greater than $35,568.00 and meet certain duties tests. If they are paid less or do not meet the tests, they must be paid 1 1/2… Read More

In a legal climate where the case is never about the facts and always about compliance, a good understanding of the Commercial Driver’s License Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse and how to use it is crucial. Unfortunately, the new regulation is as easy to follow as GPS without a cellular signal. From Part I of this article, we know the purpose of the new FMCSA Clearinghouse is to assist Motor Carriers in verifying qualified drivers and that all employers of commercial… Read More

Elon Musk is a media magnet. Ignore that he is involved with a company creating neural computer interfaces, dates pop stars and actresses, sells flamethrowers, and is trying to solve city congestion by drilling tunnels. He ran Tesla until the SEC forced him to step down as chair, but is still listed by the company as its “co-founder and CEO.” Tesla alone has over 48,000 employees, from whom have come many odd complaints about their employment including racism, high injury… Read More

Continuing our series on Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) standards, President Trump recently placed the topic back at the forefront by ramping up an attack on California’s Clean Air Act waiver. The waiver gives California special authority under the Federal Clean Air Act to set its own emissions and air pollution laws. Readers may recall that California is outsize in terms of its influence on the auto industry because it harbors a disproportionately high number of… Read More

Two new Virginia laws impacting drivers went into effect this summer on July 1, 2019. First, Virginia amended its cell phone laws to forbid any hand-held cell phone use in work zones, and, second, Virginia increased the penalty for failure to move over when passing a stationary emergency vehicle to an automatic “reckless driving” conviction. Both laws have substantial ramifications for truck drivers and other Commercial Driver’s License (“CDL”) holders. First, Virginia amended Code § 46.2-1078.1 to add a new… Read More

In today’s case law update we continue our series on employment law issues in the trucking community and highlight a pending case in which workers’ compensation, gender discrimination, and retaliation allegations intersected to create a perfect legal storm for one midwestern carrier. (See also our recent news article regarding sexual harassment in trucking.) The EEOC is suing Minnesota-based carrier, Stan Koch & Sons Trucking, on behalf of Alana Wilson, a woman who says Koch refused to rehire her after she… Read More

The countdown is on to January 6, 2020, the official compliance date for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s(“FMCSA”) Commercial Driver’s License Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse (“Clearinghouse”). According to the Executive Summary of the Final Rule, “[t]he purpose of the Clearinghouse … is to maintain records of all drug and alcohol program violations in a central repository and require that employers query the system to determine whether current and prospective employees have incurred a drug or alcohol violation that would… Read More