Trucking news and briefs for Tuesday, May 4, 2021:
DOT increases fines for regs violations based on inflation
For the second time this year, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, along with other Department of Transportation agencies, is updating fines for violations of federal trucking regulations for inflation. The DOT didn’t issue the 2020 update until January 2021.
DOT is required by Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 to adjust fine amounts each year based on inflation.
A final rule that published in the Federal Register Monday, May 3, made the new fine amounts effective immediately. The 2015 Act required FMCSA and other DOT agencies to issue an initial “catch-up” adjustment, followed by annual adjustments for inflation.
The DOT, to find the 2021 adjustment amount, had to multiply the penalty amount by the percentage change between the October 2020 Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) and the October 2019 CPI-U, which for 2021 was 1.01182. Given this multiplier, all of the fine amounts increased.
