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

J. Ward Best, Vice President of Atlantic Bulk Carriers of Providence Forge, Virginia, has been re-elected Chairman of the Virginia Trucking Association (VTA), the statewide trade association of Virginia's trucking industry. Best, who has worked for Atlantic Bulk Carrier since 1996, has served on the VTA Safety & Human Resources Council and was elected to the VTA Executive Committee last year. He has actively served on a number of other industry and safety-related organizations and associations. Atlantic Bulk Carrier, the… Read More

On August 21, 2019, the American Trucking Associations released its latest projection of the state of the freight economy, showing continued growth in the industry. This year’s report projects a 25.6% increase in tonnage by 2030 and an increase in freight industry revenues by 53.8% to $1.6 trillion over the next decade. Are you positioned to take advantage of the continued economic growth? As you have likely heard, the U.S. trucker shortage is expected to more than double over the… Read More

Setliff Law is pleased to announce that Amy Tracy has joined the firm as an associate who specializes in trucking and transportation liability, insurance coverage and defense, FMCSA compliance, and more. She hails from Roanoke, Virginia, where she has set up a satellite office for Setliff Law to expand its footprint to include on-site coverage of the southwest area of the state. Ms. Tracy is an experienced trial attorney who enjoys complex litigation and transportation law. Ms. Tracy represents clients… Read More

Statistically, long-haul trucking is largely the province of men. Sex notwithstanding, when you contemplate the prototypical trucker, you likely imagine a rugged individual capable of a solo existence living the storied “trucker lifestyle.” For men, life behind the wheel can be hard; for women, it's even tougher. According to the American Trucking Association, in 2017, women made up 6.2% of all long-haul truck drivers, a number that was up from just 4.9% in 2008. Often traveling thousands of miles from… Read More

I am told that funding roads and highways by taxing constituents is unpopular for some reason (Missourri,Colorado, South Carolina, for instance). In an effort to still pay for roads without doing that “tax” thing, some states, including Virginia, have opted to try to obtain funds by truck specific tolls. That effort has stalled in Virginia, but with the state of roads, bridges, highways and infrastructure and the aforementioned reluctance to actually tax people, the issue is going to come back.… Read More

Patch your software. Segment your network. Monitor for intruders. According to tech experts, those are security basics for businesses of any size. But when you are industry giant Equifax – a company in possession of staggering amounts of highly confidential information about more than 200 million Americans – it’s almost unthinkable not to implement those fundamental protections. An FTC, CFPB, and State AG settlement of at least $575 million illustrates the injury to consumers when companies ignore reasonably foreseeable (and… Read More