The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has declared Maryland-based Gunthers Transport an “imminent hazard to public safety” and ordered the carrier to cease operations.
FMCSA found multiple hours-of-service and vehicle maintenance violations following an “exhaustive review” of the company’s operations, the agency said Wednesday.
“Commercial truck companies that recklessly disregard federal safety regulations will be shut down and removed from our roadways,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement.
FMCSA said Gunthers allowed its drivers to falsify their hours-of-service records and exceed the 11-hour limit for daily driving. The company did not require its drivers to perform pre-trip vehicle safety inspections, the agency said.
The carrier also operated trucks “that were in such poor condition they were likely to break down” and posed a high crash risk based on its on-road performance record, FMCSA said.
The company was previously convicted of hours-of-service violations in 1995. Gunthers Transport, then known as Gunther’s Leasing Transport, and owner Mark Gunther were found guilty of pressuring drivers to falsify records in the first case where felony criminal statues were used to enforce trucking safety regulations.
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