Truckers Challenge Government 'Raids'

A handful of trucking companies and their attorney are taking on the Department of Transportation's Office of Inspector General, alleging in a class-action lawsuit that federal investigators exceeded their authority by conducting SWAT-like "raids" against the carriers.

The inspector general's office says it is acting within the bounds of its mandate.

Anthony McMahon, a former Federal Highway Administration chief counsel and the man behind Truckers United for Safety, argued before U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan June 2 that Inspector General Kenneth Mead's investigative authority does not extend to enforcement of compliance with federal highway safety regulations.

McMahon described a scene where agents from the government entered the offices of K&C Trucking in Rustburg, Va., by force, with guns drawn, and threw employees up against the wall.

Roger Williams, general counsel for the inspector general's office, called that allegation "baloney."

The OIG began taking a more aggressive approach to criminal investigations in 1996, according to Williams.

"We were seeing more and more egregious examples of flagrant [safety] violations -- trucking companies encouraging their drivers to file false logs, etc.," Williams said. He added that in every case in which his office has pursued an investigation, it has done so at the behest of the FHWA's Office of Motor Carriers, now the Office of Motor Carrier and Highway Safety.

Inspectors general have traditionally been limited to "in-house" investigations of fraud and mismanagement within federal agencies.

McMahon and TUFS are seeking a preliminary injunction barring the OIG from conducting any more criminal investigations of trucking companies.

A ruling on the motion for injunction is expected within the next several weeks.

For the full story, see the June 7 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.