USAO, Eastern District of Pennsylvania - Press Release

Summary

On July 24, 2012, Dean A. Landis, the owner operator of D.A. Landis Trucking, Inc., a Lancaster, Pennsylvania company, was sentenced to five years probation, including 12 months home detention and electronic monitoring.  In addition, he was ordered to pay a criminal fine of $15,000.  His company was sentenced to four years probation and was ordered to pay a $250,000 fine, a $4,400 special assessment and to implement a comprehensive compliance and ethics plan.  The sentencing follows a March 2012 guilty plea in which Mr. Landis admitted to routinely disregarding  Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regulations by allowing and causing commercial truck drivers employed by D.A. Landis Trucking, Inc. to operate in violation of FMCSA "hours of service" safety regulations.  D.A. Landis Trucking, Inc. also dispatched company drivers on trips they knew required excessive hours of driving time and excessive hours of "on-duty" time, without allowing the required hours of rest or regulated "off-duty" time.  Mr. Landis instructed employees of the company to prepare two sets of driver's logs, one of which was false and intended for FMCSA inspectors to conceal violations of safety regulations.  During the execution of a search warrant of the company, federal agents seized numerous logbooks and documents marked "Not For DOT".

Further, the Judge ordered Mr. Landis to publish, within two months, an approved advertisement in a trucking industry publication taking responsibility for the criminal acts in this case and informing the industry of this investigation and his role in the scheme.

This investigation was worked jointly with the Food and Drug Administration's Office of Criminal Investigation with assistance from FMCSA.