FUDGING LOG BOOKS
 

Off-duty not driving serving time
09/18/2008


FRESNO, Calif. -- Five truckers in this state have been sentenced to jail time and made to pay really stiff fines after pleading guilty to cooking their logbooks.

Sukhwinder Singh, Tarsem Singh Pahal, Bhinder Singh RAJU, Daljit Singh, and Jaspreet Singh were sentenced for keeping false driver's log books while employed as truck drivers for Nijjar Brothers Trucking, Inc. of Madera, Calif.

Sukhwinder Singh, the company’s safety director, was sentenced to six months’ house arrest and two years’ probation.

All of the defendants were ordered to leave trucking until such time as the they receive permission from the parole office to return.

Coincidentally, during the investigation of the logbook situation a driver for Nijjar Brothers caused a four-vehicle collision, killing a father and his 13-year-old son and seriously injuring six others.

The driver, Baljinder Singh, had been driving for at least 19 hours. He, too, was subsequently convicted and sentenced for falsifying his logbook entries.

The criminal charges were laid after an Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) uncovered widespread noncompliance with HOS rules as well as head-office support for the logbook violations.

In most cases the FMCSA sends the carrier, the executives and drivers involved a Notice of Claim telling them that they’re liable to be fined if they don’t shape up. If the violations seem particularly widespread within a company, the carrier can be told to cease operations until they put a corrective plan is put into action.

It’s only when the FMCSA deems the violations to be deliberate and very serious that they call in the DOT, which in turn can call in the local federal prosecutor.

According to experts, logbook tampering becomes a felony in California if the parties involved know the tampering is going on and don’t do anything about it or worse, helped with the violations.

It would be nice if the courts could sentence more drivers just like this.


BTW, welcome to the board, Pipeman. :wink:

I was just following up on this with a search, and seems this investigation with charges, started about 4 years ago, and 5 companies were involved. This Nijjar Brothers Company are just now getting sentencing. I haven't read all the articles very well, but enough to know this stemmed from accidents, and numerous complaints. Seems this particular company was well known for having about 3-4 guys living out of a truck, some with CDL's and some not.

I bet there will be many more like this, coming to this Country with no regard for our citizens or our laws, and willing to work for less wages, basically stealing work and money, before they are deported.

I'm glad to see companies like this get taken off the roads. Apparently, their trucks were pretty well beaten up too.

http://www.oig.dot.gov/item.jsp?id=1450

Fudged my books all the time at GTS I remember getting loaded in Eagan ,Mn on 3/22 1000 and arriving in Grand Junction,Co 3/23/--0900...100% legal "on paper" matching fuel stamps...I never drove tired ,but i re-wrote log book history as required.

Welcome eh !!

Can I offer you some Tim Hortons coffee ??

Remember to secure your dolly crank !!!! :lol:

I wondered what the hell you were talking "aboat" until I saw where op had listed as where he was from

We know him from other boards. :wink:

He already knows you two convicts? :lol:

The leash just keeps getting shorter then. :)

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...31E8A46562.gif

double post

[quote="Evinrude"]
After a major accident. Does your Cell phone, food recipes, easy pass and qualcomm line up? If not, rewriting your log book only incriminates you.


I run %100 legally now, I ain't going to jail for working.lol


But I only run 1200 miles a week.

Yeah, it's like a hostile takeover. 8)

Welcome aboard Lucien. No knitting needles allowed over here. :wink:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080923/od_nm/us_robbers_2

A couple less to worry about.

[quote="Evinrude"]

Gottcha eh

Evinrude...the new lbj. yeah yeah, we all know that you drive local and are the new greatest thing since sliced bread. we also all know how bad otr sucks and that all companies except yours blows. when you actuall thing of something to say that might be of slight interest to anybody start a new thread and put it all in caps so we are sure to see that your one track mind veered off course. thanks ahead of time...JED.

My new job is still trucking so it still sux's. Still driving a bit OTR but paid by the hour so that helps keep me around until I can save some more money for School.

Man you seem to hate your job. You should consider something local.

okay.... I have a question to ponder.... what if your at 14 hrs 45 mins...(intrastate time) when you pull into the scales. (scales are 10 mins from home) you only have 15 mins left before you are out of hours... Can you tell the DOT No to an inspection because if you stay to be inspected that will put you over hours? just wondering????

As long as you use the phrase"I will call a U.S. Marshall to come arrest you" you can tell them anything you want.

I'd say that what those guys were doing is a little different from fudging your log book... They were apparently beyond fudging.

Anyway, you're right that, when push comes to shove, they can subpoena your cell records and qualcomm (my aunt works for qcomm and says the info is NOT protected- fwiw). That would be in an extreme case though. If you're just wanting to get past the scale master then all you have to do is keep your cool and roll with it.

I've always fudged a bit just because I'm too lazy to recall exactly who was driving when. I mean, it's a serious pain IMO. But I'm not off by A DAY. I might be off by a few hours tops- and that's just for ease of logging. Sure, I could get in trouble for that. But I'm not going to get thrown in jail for it.

Most companies and safety directors are smarter than to actually "support" log book falsifications. That used to be the norm, but not any more.

Local boys? :? :shock:

Or they are From Toronto ont Canada.

I think the Singh family hails from Pennsylvania. Sounds amish.

Also Evinrude it should be "GOOD BYE CPM"

All I know is if my parents named me "Suckwinder" I'd kill them! :lol:

jd112488, the new CFM/LBJ of OTR trucking. :lol:

when did i saw i hate my job, i love it and i personally cant afford the local jobs around my parts. me, i am perfectally happy. no need to bash the other segments of the industry to feel good about myself. i just like harrassing indivduals that repeat the same old song and dance over and over again, like yourself there evinrude.

You may not have notice in one of posts that i went back to OTR with my new company.

well, i think we decided i was reginal, not otr. i am home every other day. also, go ahead and call me the crusader for otr, that is fine. but i like to think i am a crusader for doing what makes yourself happy. if that is driving otr then by all means, go for it. i am also a crusader against stupid, narrow minded individuals. which is why i pester you are COOLIO the way i do, because you are narrow minded. you seem to think that since you got out of otr and it is working for you that all of a sudden the whole segment sucks. the otr industry does not suck, it may not be for everyone, yourself included. what sucks is you and coolio and your abilities to adapt to the otr job. does not mean you suck, you just could not handle the job for whatever reason you say. be it family, income, hometime, etc. i myself hate driving otr...the waiting on loads, not knowing where you are going, being away from my family. does that mean that otr sucks? no, it means that i sucked at otr..just like you. but it does not give me the right to bash every otr company and anyone that wants to try it. there, i tried to be nice and PC for everyone.

You just said a mouth-full there. Not every job is for everybody. ( One mans' pleasure.... )


Yep, I did OTR and did very well with it, but at this time in my life ( young kids ) , well what was BEST for US at this time was for me to be around more. I took a local driving job. This was also VERY good to me. I am now in a different area of the trucking industry and once again, I am very happy. It is the industry that I love..... not what part I play in it.

We have a program where I work where we will take an employee from a plant ( inside factory job ) and send them to school to get their CDL. Pay then a 40 hr per week check while in school and then they work a spotting job then an inner-city job then a local job, on up to a road job in two years. Going to a spotter job from a "plant" job is about $3.00/hr increase in pay. It makes me feel good to see someone better themselves in this way.


Thats what I like about trucking. :wink:


Ridge

You couldn't have said it better! :D

I said it before and I'll say it again:TO EACH THIER OWN!

Feel Better?

never felt bad, and never felt better. do yuo feel better boosting your ego insulting otr drivers and companies?

What drivers did I insult?

as for companies...the only insult i have is companies that take advantage of drivers.