Beam Brothers Trucking Raided by Feds
Posted on February 28, 2013
Filed Under GETTING AUDITED, HORROR STORIES, HOURS OF SERVICE, IN THE NEWS
Here is a story which should make any trucking company nervous. On February 12, 2013, numerous agents from the IRS, the DOT’s Inspector General’s office, and even the Postal Service invaded Beam Brothers Trucking in Mount Crawford, VA. They seized documents, computers, and files.
According to the search warrant affidavit, the government is investigating whether or not Beam Brothers is exceeding the hours of service limits and falsifying its logbooks to cover it up.
Now those of you who have been around the trucking block a few times are saying, “no really, what was going on there? Drugs? Money Laundering? Phony Licenses? Something bad must have been going down for the government to come down on them like that, not just false logs.” Read the search warrant affidavit. This is all about log falsification, period.
Here is how it happens. Believe it or not, FMCSA actually does have the authority to put people in jail for violating the safety regulations. I believe the law says if you are willfully and knowingly violating a regulation, you can be charged criminally. FMCSA only does this about one time out of 10,000.
For one thing, the standard of proof is much higher. FMCSA must present actual proof, not the pseudo-proof they normally use in their civil cases. Actual proof is a lot of work. Also, they must involve another agency when they initiate these kinds of cases. The criminal arm of the FMCSA is called the DOT’S Office of Inspector General (OIG). They actually carry guns and badges. (FMCSA agents do not). I believe this office was originally created to prosecute waste, fraud, and abuse within the DOT itself. To my knowledge, they do very little of that. Instead, they act as the criminal investigative arm within DOT on the regulated industries. I imagine they would criminally investigate cases involving the FAA, FRA, and the Coast Guard as well.
When the FMCSA discovers that there is possible willful violations going on at a motor carrier, with management’s full knowledge, they can consider starting a criminal investigation, using the OIG office. By far, the most common of these investigations is hours of service and log falsification. Generally, these investigations start by a disgruntled employee tipping off FMCSA to what is happening behind the scenes at a trucking company.
Once FMCSA has some inside knowledge, they try to build on that. They try to get more employees to talk. In this case, according to the affidavit, the OIG actually put an undercover agent inside the company. Apparently, Beam Brothers has been under criminal investigation for 2 years. The DOT is accusing Beam Brothers of knowingly running their drivers in excess of the hours of service limits and then forcing their drivers to falsify their logs to cover it up. The government says they have at least 7 witnesses who will testify to management forcing drivers to falsify their logs and/or run over hours. In one case, they allegedly threatened to withhold pay until a driver submitted false logs to the office.
I actually almost believe the government is lying on that one, just because I find it hard to believe any trucking company would be that stupid. Who knows, maybe they are that stupid.
Finally, after 2 years, on February 12, they finally raided their offices and seized their files. Next, you can expect criminal charges for most of the management in the company. They will probably end up paying a huge fine, maybe $500,000, and get home detention for several months.
I do not know Beam Brothers. Apparently, they are not a small carrier. According to DOT’s CSA website, they have about 400 trucks. It looks like they are primarily a mail hauler. I reviewed their CSA scores, and they all are pretty good. Their accident ratio looks pretty good.
I guess there could be two ways to look at that. One, this criminal investigation could be completely overblown, and the level of non-compliance and unsafe activity happening really isn’t that much. Or two, it may just support what many DOT people believe. If your CSA score is high, it’s because you are an unsafe, dangerous motor carrier. If your CSA is not high, you are still an unsafe, dangerous motor carrier. I would probably lean a little more towards #1.
The key point which must be present for a criminal investigation to be launched is active participation by management. As we all know, log falsification and hours of service violations happen all the time. However, if management is knowingly and willfully operating drivers in excess of the hours rules, and then forcing them to cover it up….. this is the type of situation which could generate a criminal investigation. It probably won’t, but it could.
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5 Responses to “Beam Brothers Trucking Raided by Feds”
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This case, so far, definitely raises some unanswered questions, but the fact that they were FINED in 2004 AND 2010 after Compliance Reviews definitely indicates a pattern of bad behavior, and implies an unwillingness to change. If the witnesses are accurate, BBT was requiring drivers to run from Knoxville to Dallas AND BACK, which is 1700 miles. That would seem to support the “32 hours of continuous driving” statement in the warrant. And yes, I could easily believe that a company WOULD be stupid enough to withhold pay to force falsification. Profit, like power, corrupts. In any case, it seems that this carrier managed to operate unsafely, and still have a decent CSA score. That, in itself, might make you question the efficacy of the CSA algorithms as a predictive model.
The forty years i have been in the industry. it is hard for me to believe that just a log audit. takes all these agencies. keyword here folks is log. when the irs shows up,most generally it is to do with taxes…fraud(payroll)or a substantial amount of theft. a log audit is what it says audit. postal police, us marshals service, dot,office of the inspector general, and local and state agencies, just for an audit.. right. my guess is payroll theft fraud, unpaid taxes, from the possible theft, insurance fraud possibly, many things come to mind that warrant these agencies to investigate and confiscate bank, personal and employee records just for a log audit. we will wait and see. bless all …
With electronic logs I don’t know how much falsifying can be done. Once that 14 hour clock starts it doesn’t stop until 14 hours is up. You are still within the 14 hour rule. And the computer documents when the truck is moving and when it stops. You can’t edit that either. Interesting…. will have to keep an eye on this.
And I agree with WR Bullard on that too…. there’s got to be more than just logs being audited. IRS has absolutely NOTHING to do with logs.
Well considering I was involved in an accident with a beam truck on I70 outside of Fredrick Md. and the Beam driver was sited for accident. I had often wondered about what the driver was thinking when he pulled out in front of me in an active accident scene. Could fatique or hours of service been a factor Probably