On the first day of the new hours-of-service (HOS) rules, Navajo Shippers Inc in Commerce City CO, which claims to be the largest refrigerated trucking company in the state, charged customers a $100-an-hour penalty for trucks waiting at the loading dock for more than one hour, according to a story in The Denver Business Journal.
Under this plan, the company assessed penalties of $66,000, according to Vice-President Don Digby Jr, who said there is a cap of $600 in a 24-hour period.
Digby did not discuss shippers' response to the penalties.
“The only thing I see out of this is prices are going to go up,” he said. “We're going to bill for everything that we do. Every time our drivers and trucks are sitting there, someone's going to pay.”
He added that he's expecting a 17% decrease in utilization and a 25% decline in the supply of trucks because of the new rules and a growing economy.
The company operates in the lower 48 states but mainly Colorado and the West Coast. Navajo had revenues of $166 million in 2003.
