The U.S. DOT announced Tuesday it has increased fines across the board for violations of federal trucking regulations.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is required by Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 to adjust fine amounts each year based on inflation.
A final rule that will publish in the Federal Register Wednesday, July 31, makes the new fine amounts effective immediately. The 2015 Act required FMCSA and other DOT agencies to issue an initial “catch-up” adjustment, followed by annual adjustments for inflation.
The DOT, in order to find the 2019 adjustment amount, had to multiply the penalty amount by the percentage change between the October 2018 Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) and the October 2017 CPI-U, which this year was 1.02522. Given this multiplier, all of the fine amounts increased, as seen below:
