“To amend title 49, United States Code, to establish a penalty for a freight broker that contracts with an unsafe carrier, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section establishes a civil penalty of 10% of the value of contracted cargo for the entire contract against any freight broker that contracts with a specified transportation company—defined as a cargo transporter for compensation that, in the prior five years, (1) received three or more Department of Transportation (DOT) violations or (2) employed a driver who received three or more DOT violations. Penalties collected are deposited into the Highway Trust Fund, with amounts available without further appropriation for DOT or highway safety infrastructure projects under titles 49 and 23. This section further authorizes the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) Administrator to investigate freight brokers following a fatal crash involving a contracted company and, if the broker acted with egregious disregard for safety, to impose additional operating requirements on the broker.