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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

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