Fines for violations of federal laws elevated by DOT

The Division of Transportation at present revealed a remaining rule updating the civil penalty quantities that could be imposed for violations of sure DOT laws, together with Federal Motor Provider Security Administration laws targeted on trucking-company audits.

DOT is required by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Enhancements Act of 2015 to regulate high-quality quantities annually primarily based on inflation.

A remaining rule revealed at present within the Federal Register makes the brand new high-quality quantities efficient instantly. The 2015 Act required FMCSA and different DOT businesses to situation an preliminary “catch-up” adjustment, adopted by annual changes for inflation.

The DOT, to search out the 2023 adjustment quantity, needed to multiply the earlier penalty quantity by the share change between the October 2022 Shopper Value Index for All City Shoppers (CPI-U) and the October 2021 CPI-U, which for that interval was 1.07745. Given this multiplier, all the high-quality quantities elevated.

The DOT famous that the penalty changes made by the rule will apply solely to violations that happen after the rule takes impact, including that the rule doesn’t change beforehand assessed or enforced penalties that DOT is actively accumulating or has collected.

The up to date fines for FMCSA laws violations could be seen right here.