Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/140569
leading news, trucking market conditions and industry analysis Pilot employees plead guilty to fraud, lawsuits continue court today do not come as a surprise given what we've been learning in our own internal investigations, but are nonetheless disappointing," Pilot said in a statement regarding the pleas. "We want to assure our customers that we are taking every step to correct any wrongdoing that has occurred ive Pilot Flying J employees pleaded and to make certain that it does not happen guilty to mail fraud charges involving again." federal allegations against the comMoreover, carriers and owner-operators pany that it defrauded trucking companies have continued to sue the fuel provider for out of millions of dollars in a systematic fuel counts of fraud, unjust enrichment, breach rebate withholding scheme. of contract, deceptive trade practices and The accusations surfaced April 18 when more, with at least 13 lawsuits filed against a federal affidavit was unsealed. The FBI on the company since the raid. Nearly all of April 15 had raided Pilot's headquarters in them have been class-action lawsuits. Knoxville, Tenn., seizing paper and elecJimmy Haslam, Pilot Flying J chief tronic files and documents. The allegations executive officer, speaking to a group of stem from what Pilot fleet executives May called manual rebate 17 in Indianapolis To see all of CCJ's coverage of Pilot's alleged rebate withholding, calculations for a certain at the Scopelitis visit ccjdigital.com/pilot-raid. segment of its customTransportation ers. The affidavit alleges Seminar, urged fleets that Pilot salespeople intentionally would to not sue but instead work with the comwithhold portions of rebate money owed to pany's audit team. trucking companies to increase their com"You'll get 100 percent of your dollars, missions and the company's profit. and you'll get them quickly," Haslam said, Arnold Ralenkotter, a sales director for adding the company will have all money Pilot, pleaded guilty to one count of mail repaid by July. fraud, and Pilot employee Ashley Judd Moreover, all customers were set to be entered a plea of guilty to a charge of removed from manual rebate calculations at conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Holly the end of June, Haslam said. "We're comRadford, Jay Stinnett and Kevin Clark mitted to righting all of the wrongs." pleaded guilty to similar charges. Haslam maintained in his address that "The statements released by the federal until the April 15 raid, he did not know about the withholding scheme. Several of the Scan the QR code with your smartphone or visit ccjdigital.com/news/subscribe-to-newscompany's diesel salesletters to sign up for the CCJ Daily Report, a people have been placed on daily e-mail newsletter filled with news, analyadministrative leave. sis, blogs and market condition articles. – James Jaillet F EOBR plan under DOT review T he U.S. Department of Transportation anticipates publishing a proposal to mandate electronic onboard recorders and requirements for hours-of-service supporting documents Nov. 18. The DOT Secretary's office received the Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking June 7 from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The White House Office of Management and Budget must clear the SNPRM before the agency can publish it for comment in the Federal Register. The notice will supplement FMCSA's 2011 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and also will address issues raised by a federal appeals court's 2011 decision vacating the agency's EOBR Final Rule of the pre- vious year. The court ruled FMCSA failed to ensure the mandate would not result in drivers being harassed by motor carriers and enforcement officials. Congress stipulated FMCSA issue an EOBR rule when it passed the two-year highway reauthorization act last July. The act also required the rule to set performance standards, define "tamper resistant" and include safeguards to ensure data privacy and confidentiality. commercial carrier journal CCJ_0713_JOURNAL.indd 9 – Jill Dunn | july 2013 9 6/20/13 3:32 PM