FMCSA Official Accused of Taking Bribes

Posted on February 1, 2011 
Filed Under HORROR STORIES, POLITICS

FYI my original blog post somehow disappeared.  If you left a comment before, please leave it again.  Thanks!  EA

Well, my underground fan club at FMCSA has been anxiously waiting for me to comment on this one, so here it is. The original article from the Buffalo News can be found here.

In summary, James H. Wood, Field Office Supervisor of the FMCSA Buffalo, New York office, is accused of taking bribes from Canadian safety consultants. In exchange, Wood would delay audits of Canadian motor carriers, or schedule audits on competing motor carriers. Apparently, one of the Canadian safety consultants who had been funnelling Wood cash contacted the FBI, and turned Mr. Wood in. He alleged he paid Wood $60,000 – 70,000 over the past two years for information and assistance.

Whoooooo! $60,000 – 70,000! No wonder I don’t have any Canadian customers right now! I mean, hell, if you’re taking bribes, shouldn’t you open that up to all consultants? Really, give us all a chance to bid on it! The article says Wood pushed back an audit for $1,000. $1,000? Hey, my guys can come up with that! Really! I’ve got that sitting in my bank account right now. What do you want, money order, Comcheck, or good ol’ cash? If I knew that was the going rate, maybe we could have avoided some of these darned audits.

Ok, I’m joking. Seriously, I would not try to bribe any FMCSA officials. One, it’s illegal. Two, it’s illegal. Three, if you get caught you go to jail, because it’s illegal. Furthermore, in the 13 years I worked at FMCSA I did not take any bribes. For that matter, I did not know of anyone taking bribes. I never even heard of anyone taking bribes. I just assumed that sort of thing could never happen. For one thing, these FMCSA guys make outrageous sums of money in salaries and benefits. To risk that, you’d have to be an idiot, crazy, or both.

There was a story once, which happened probably around 1992 or 1993. FMCSA had a guy named Pete Argen who was an auditor, working out of this very same Buffalo office. A Canadian motor carrier offered to hook him up with something in the neighborhood of $10,000 to make his audit go away. Argen reported the attempted bribe to his bosses, who then set him up with the FBI. The FBI wired Argen up, and when the Canadian trucking company official attempted to make the payoff, the FBI took him down, and arrested him. That’s the only story I ever heard about bribes.

I don’t know this guy, James H. Wood. Never met him, not sure if he was working at FMCSA when I worked there. I quit in 2003. Once upon a time, I knew everyone in that New York office. I guess I feel bad for the ones I know who still work there, because this is as bad as it gets. A good number of my customers already think the system is corrupt. If I had a nickel for every customer who asked why isn’t DOT going after my competitor, or it’s just a shakedown, or DOT just wants money…. I could retire.

I already had a customer who saw this talk to me. The conversation was along the lines of:

TRUCKER: So that’s how these guys roll? Why don’t we just pay these guys off next time they want to audit me?
ME: Well, they don’t all take bribes. This is an isolated instance.
TRUCKER: Isolated instance? I told them my screwed-up logs were an isolated instance last time, and they fined me $15,000. They’re all in it together, just tell me how much I need to come up with.
ME: I don’t think that’s going to work, especially since I know the guy you’d have to bribe, and he’d never go for it.
TRUCKER: Yeah, ok. What about his boss?

Ok, that conversation did not take place, it’s a joke, but it’s just a matter of time before it does. So thank you, James H. Wood, whoever the hell you are. Thanks for making my job tougher. Now I have to explain to my already suspicious, untrusting customer base the system really is not corrupt, and that payoffs are not a way of life at FMCSA.

To my friends at FMCSA, I do have season tickets to one of the best teams in baseball, the Philadelphia Phillies. I’m just sayin’……..

Again, that is a joke. While it is true I do have tickets to the Phillies, I would never offer said tickets in any sort of bribe attempt, nor would I offer anything else in any type of bribe attempt, because I really don’t want to go to jail. I’m just having a good time poking fun at FMCSA, so all you FBI agents reading this, please don’t bother wiretapping my phones.

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