The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) said it is continuing to strengthen consumer protections with its landmark win against a moving company that failed to received appropriate registrations.
The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California found in September that USA Logistics, Inc., a moving company, had repeatedly transported household goods across state lines without proper registrations. As part of that judgement, USA Logistics admitted to all of the numerous statues and regulation violations and agreed to a $25,000 fine and to not violate the laws anymore.
“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,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said. “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.”
In recent months, the FMCSA has a hosted Commercial Enforcement and Consumer Protection (CECP) course for state attorneys general personnel to focus on consumer protection issues in the transportation of household goods and the enforcement options available to those offices. The CECP course focuses on strengthening enforcement, along with its Operation Protect Your Move which sees an annual deployment of dozens of FMCSA investigators cracking down on moving companies with complaints against them across the country. The year, the Operation resulted in 60 investigations and more than 30 enforcement actions.
“We want carriers to know that there can be major consequences when federal regulations are not followed,” FMCSA Deputy Administrator Vinn White said. “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.”