Friday Short Haul - Smuggled migrants, Prime settlement, USF Holland lawsuit, truck road damage

Dave Wickenhauser on Fri, October 16, 2020

Last Updated: Thu, October 15, 2020

Border patrol nabs human smuggler, rescues 100 migrants

A Border Patrol K-9 alerted to an odor around a semi trailer during a routine inspection at a Laredo North Station on I-35 last week, and it was discovered that the trailer was packed with 100 illegal migrants being transported by a human smuggler.

The migrants were from Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico, and were locked inside the trailer with no chance to escape if there had been a crash or abandonment by their handlers. The refrigerated trailer was set at 60 degrees.

Agents removed the migrants and arrested them for immigration violations. None of them wore protective equipment to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, and they were processed using Title 42 coronavirus protection protocols. Preliminary examination revealed that none required immediate medical attention.

The semi truck driver, who is an American citizen, was also arrested. He had an extensive criminal history, and it was learned that the tractor-trailer he was using to transport the migrants had been stolen.

In a written statement, Laredo Sector officials said, “This is yet another incident that is indicative of the criminal element involved in the smuggling of people into the country for profit. They have no regard for the safety of the people they exploit while also endangering our agents and communities.”

Prime ordered to mail hard-copy letters notifying drivers of settlement

After a confusing series of events surrounding the $28 million settlement award to Prime truck drivers, a U.S. District Court judge has ordered the company to send letters to 30,000 truck drivers notifying them how to collect on the settlement.

The confusion began shortly after the announcement of the settlement in favor of truck drivers who claimed that Prime improperly paid them in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, Missouri minimum wage law, and related laws.

Early last week, some 40,000 former and current Prime drivers and trainees received a notice, mostly by email, to visit the Prime trucking settlement website for instructions on how to receive their share of the court-ordered settlement.

Then, on that same day a supervisor at Prime sent a message through the company's app and over the Qualcomm system advising drivers not to follow the link in the email because it was a phishing scam.

To add to the confusion, that same supervisor sent another Qualcomm message recanting the previous message.

Two days later, an attorney for the truck drivers filed an emergency motion noting that the damage had already been done and claimed that truck drivers would be too cautious about the potential phishing scam warning and would not follow through with claiming their award.

So, a judge with the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts ordered Prime to send letters on company letterhead, and a Qualcomm message to all of its truck drivers notifying them about the legitimacy of the settlement.

The judge noted that with the prevalence of phishing scams it would be reasonable for truck drivers to be hesitant to open any more emails about the settlement.

Prime's letter correctly stated, “There have been inaccurate messages sent out on the Prime app and the Qualcomm system about the email that many of you received to participate in a class action settlement, The email about the settlement is not a scam or a phishing attempt. It is a legitimate, court-approved notice informing you of your right to recover money and other relief as part of a lawsuit settlement."

Drivers who believe they are in the settlement class have until December 7 to fill out and return or submit online the "Claim/Consent to Join Form."

More information about the settlement and potential payouts can be found on the Prime Settlement FAQ page.

USF Holland sued for not hiring women drivers

Obviously not vying for a spot on Women In Trucking's list of Top Companies for Women to Work For in Transportation, USF Holland is being sued by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission which alleges that the company has refused to hire qualified female truck drivers at its Mississippi terminal.

The EEOC brought the lawsuit after failing to reach a settlement with Holland. They are asking for a permanent injunction against this type of discrimination as well as a monetary relief.

The lawsuit claims that USF Holland has hired virtually no females as truck drivers in the 34 years that it has been operating the Olive Branch terminal, but allegedly hires men with equal or inferior qualifications.

The company, which is based in Holland, Michigan, has more than 50 terminals across the United States. The allegations would be in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title I of the Civil Rights Act of 1991, which prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex.

“It is important for employers to understand that assumptions about gender roles have no place in employment decisions,” Delner Franklin-Thomas, a district director for the EEOC said in the complaint. “Denying women equal employment opportunities in the workplace because of gender is illegal.”

Large trucks cause road damage

From our "Studies that show what everybody knows" files comes this story proving that large trucks cause a disproportionally large amount of damage to roads.

The interesting twist about this study, however, is the way the authors quantify the damage using a simple formula called the Generalized Fourth Power Law that takes into account a truck's axle weights.

The Fourth Power Law has actually been in use by road engineers since the '60s to determine the relative weight done to pavement according to a vehicle's weight.

To arrive at the formula, the American Association of State Highway Officials conducted road tests beginning in the 1950s by driving trucks with different weights on a continuous loop until road damage was noticed.

As an aside, during the tests there were 141 crashes and 2 fatalities.

Data from the "loop" tests was eventually parsed down to an equation that would give road engineers a rule of thumb for determining how much damage a given road would experience from vehicles, mainly trucks, having different axle weights.

In the equation here, W1 is the weight of an axle on vehicle 1, and W2 is the weight of an axle on vehicle 2.

For example, a sedan weighing 4 tons would have an assumed single axle weight of 2 tons (W1=2). And the second vehicle would be a truck weighting, say, 40 tons on eight axles, leaving any one axle weighing 5 tons (W2=5).

So, raising the result of the division to the power of four the truck does 40 times more damage to the road per axle than the car does.

Applying this formula, engineers consider that the damage done to roads from cars is basically zero, and that all road designs should take into account only the truck use expected on that road.

Sources: Breitbart, LandLine, LandLine, Inside Science

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