By Land Line staff
In Colorado, officials are aggressively pursuing questionable CDLs and plan to take their effort as far as a statewide sweep at the state’s 20 weigh stations.
The dragnet strategy comes in the wake of the current CDL scandal that prompted the state to initiate a review of all 124,488 commercial driver’s licenses issued by the state to see whether false information was used to obtain them.
Michael Cooke, executive director of the state’s Department of Revenue, ordered the license review after an explosive series of investigative reports in The Denver Post. The Post has been unraveling tales of suspect activity in daily reports. It all began when two former DMV workers were charged for conspiring to sell unauthorized Colorado driver licenses, including CDLs, to ineligible people.
The state sent out 250 cancellation letters to CDL holders who received their licenses through those two people. CDL holders were informed that their licenses and driving privileges were immediately revoked, and that they needed to provide evidence that their information is correct.
The state’s investigation is now extensive. However, Diane Reimer, a public information officer with the Department of Revenue, told Land Line that the state’s immediate goal is to see that truckers driving with canceled CDLs are off the road.
“Obviously, we want to make sure that all of the CDL drivers are legitimate drivers,” Reimer said. “Some licenses were sold in this fraudulent effort to some folks who shouldn’t have had them. Either they were illegal immigrants, or whatever, and we’re just trying to address that.”
While the searches will initially focus on making sure that names match the Social Security numbers used to obtain the CDLs, Reimer said the state would look for anything in license information “that doesn’t quite jibe.”
“We’ve canceled 303 CDLs in all and found nine that won’t be reissued,” she said. “We feel they are fraudulent, and those holders need to get proper testing and go back through the system.
“If we’re going to really make sure that the truckers who are licensed in Colorado and who are on the roads are qualified to be on the roads, then we need to carry it this far. It’s a massive effort. We have this obligation to the public.”
Reimer said the state wanted to assure drivers who received their CDLs using correct information that their ability to drive is not in danger. If their licenses are revoked, state officials will reissue the license “in a heartbeat” once correct information is provided.
Managing Editor Sandi Soendker and Associate Editor Mark H. Reddig contributed to this report.
Supreme Court will hear Michigan truck fee cases
A 10-year-old legal battle over Michigan’s pricey flat fee on trucks was recently re-energized when the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the argument in two of three pending appeals. Press reports estimate about $70 million is at stake in the latest challenge.
In the case of the ATA vs. the Michigan Public Service Commission, the high court will decide whether the $100 fee on vehicles conducting intrastate operations violates the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
Because the fee is imposed on all trucks doing business in Michigan – including trucks engaged in interstate commerce – the ATA argues the fee affects interstate commerce and thus violates the Commerce Clause.
In a second challenge – Mid-Con Freight Systems vs. the Michigan Public Service Commission – the Supreme Court will decide whether the $100 fee on vehicles operating solely in interstate commerce is pre-empted by Section 40 of the U.S. Code 14504, the federal law defining the Single State Registration System. The SSRS was created by Congress in 1991 and limits participating states to a $10 annual fee.
According to ATA’s Litigation Center, oral arguments before the court are scheduled for April.
Hot nickels found on Miami ice
By Mark H. Reddig
Associate Editor
Law-enforcement officials finally found a 45,000-pound load of nickels from the U.S. Mint that went missing Dec. 20, an FBI spokeswoman told Land Line.
The FBI’s Judy Orihuela said that Miami-Dade police found the coins early in the morning of Feb. 4 during an unrelated raid.
The local police “were out looking for a grow lab, a hydroponics lab” – for marijuana – “and when they were out here, they found a cooler with nickels in it.”
The nickels were in a plastic bag in the cooler. But they set off a light bulb for the police, who called for additional help. Soon, they found the remainder of the load of slot-machine fuel buried on the property where the pot-growing operation was located.
Orihuela was not sure how deep the nickels were buried.
The site is located in the Redlands, “way down south” in the Miami metro area.
Several people were detained, but no one had been arrested as of press time, Orihuela said.
Still missing is Angel Ricardo Mendoza, 42, of Hialeah, FL, the trucker who was driving the nickel truck when it went missing. The FBI “is pretty sure” that he has left the country.
Orihuela said officials found most of the nickels. But, she said, it looks like they might have spent some of them, or “converted” them, maybe into larger – and less weighty – denominations.
Mendoza, his 2001 white Freightliner, 2005 Utility trailer and the nickels all went missing Dec. 20. The tractor-trailer picked up the 45,000-pound load in East Rutherford, NJ, and was scheduled to arrive Dec. 20 in New Orleans. But Mendoza and his rig disappeared that day as they passed through Tallahassee, FL.
The rig was found at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 22, at the Flying J Truck Stop in Fort Pierce, FL, Orihuela told Land Line. The load was gone, and the driver was not with the vehicle.
The rig – operated by Geller Transportation of Miami – was carrying 3.6 million nickels worth $180,000 contained in 900 bags each weighing 50 pounds.
Orihuela said investigators were still not sure why the driver went to Florida with the load.
