WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has won a landmark judgment against a household goods moving company for unauthorized transportation of household goods, in violation of FMCSA’s registration requirements.
“Families deserve to know that their possessions are in safe hands when they’re moving to a new home, and this Department has taken action against carriers that are not fulfilling their end of the deal,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “The judgment we’re announcing today is an important step forward in holding moving companies and brokers accountable for deceptive practices, and we will continue to use our authority to protect consumers everywhere we can.”
According to a FMCSA press release, 0n Sep. 11, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California issued a final judgment against USA Logistics, Inc., ordering the company to pay $25,000 in fines to resolve multiple violations of FMCSA statutes and regulations. The final judgment stems from a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, on behalf of Secretary Buttigieg, against USA Logistics for repeated unauthorized transportation of household goods. As part of the final judgment, USA Logistics admitted all violations and agreed to obey the law in the future.
The FMCSA continues to strengthen state partnerships and take other actions to better protect consumers when they are moving household goods across state lines.
“We want carriers to know that there can be major consequences when federal regulations are not followed,” said Vinn White, FMCSA Deputy Administrator. “We use the full scope of our current authority to stop bad actors, and we were proud to partner with DOJ on this important case.”
The release noted that FMCSA hosted a Commercial Enforcement and Consumer Protection (CECP) course in November for state attorney general personnel to highlight consumer protection issues in the transportation of household goods and enforcement options available to address these practices. The CECP course builds on FMCSA’s work to focus agency resources on addressing moving complaints and conducting Operation Protect Your Move – an annual deployment of dozens of FMCSA investigators across the country to crack down on moving companies with the most egregious complaints in the agency’s National Consumer Complaint Database. The 2024 Operation resulted in 60 investigations and over 30 enforcement actions.
In other recent developments related to consumer protection in household goods, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee passed a bipartisan bill in September to expand FMCSA’s available enforcement tools by providing the agency with explicit authority to assess civil penalties for violations of commercial regulations, including household goods consumer protection requirements, and to withhold registration from applicants failing to provide verification details demonstrating that they intend to operate legitimate businesses.
To learn more about how FMCSA is working to protect household goods consumers, visit www.protectyourmove.gov for updates.
Dana Guthrie is an award-winning journalist who has been featured in multiple newspapers, books and magazines across the globe. She is currently based in the Atlanta, Georgia, area.
Soviet Union v. 2.0 and their Bolshevik noses up everyone’s @ss. This article, apparently a mouthpiece for government, praises it like it’s a good thing. I noticed they didn’t present any opposing views, giving it an air of “Faux Consensus”: Everybody agrees and everyone thinks this is wonderful. There are no opposing views. There’s only room for one view in this nanny State.
I agree with your opinion on the UNAMERICAN regulations in the entire trucking industry. the CFR49 is an outdated slavery pact allowing huge trucking company’s to get drivers under the threat of law to conform to these fascist regulations. And when sonething,anything goes wrong the driver is at fault. As a veteran this effect is even worse. We fought to preserve freedom not slavery to a time clock dash computer.. A Literal chain on your ankle. I AM SO GLAD TO HAVE BEEN RETIRED FROM THE LIVING HELL OF THE DOT PLANTATION. No one in their right mind is signing up for the military or THE TRUCKING INDUSTRY.
oth of you are entitled to your opinion but the FMCSA also enforces these companies are legal their drivers are safe and legal to operate commercial vehicles they are using and the registration and weight limitations that emcompasses each individual Class of CDL.. what it sounds like is that neither of you care if they are abiding by law, legal or using drivers who shouldn’t be operating under the appropriate license so long the job gets done.. that’s how accidents and deaths happen… and the military and trucking world are two totally different topics as a veteran of 17 years recruitment is low even though the standards have been changed to emcompasses more who would be eligible to enlist still can’t enlist either because of drug use, medical issues or criminal records are severe enough they get flagged.