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Trucking news and updates for Friday, May 10, 2024:
New Jersey Increases Minimum Liability Insurance Requirements
New Jersey has enacted legislation signed by Governor Phil Murphy in January that raises the minimum liability insurance for truck owners to $1.5 million. However, the exact scope of this increase remains ambiguous.
Initially introduced in 2022, the bill was passed by both the state assembly and senate early in January and signed into law shortly after. The updated regulation stipulates that commercial motor vehicle owners must hold liability insurance of at least “an amount or limit of $1,500,000, exclusive of interest and costs, for injury or death of one or more individuals in a single accident or for property damage in a single accident.”
The law specifies that this requirement can be met with a range of insurance solutions, including commercial automobile policies, fleet policies, and similar insurance types.
For comparison, the federal minimum liability insurance for interstate motor carriers stands at $750,000, which has faced scrutiny due to rising medical and other related costs. A bill introduced in December aims to increase this federal minimum to $5 million.
Regarding New Jersey’s new regulation, it will be effective on July 1, applying to all policies initiated or renewed from that date. The law’s language does not clarify whether it applies solely to New Jersey carriers or extends to out-of-state carriers operating within the state. There are concerns about how the International Registration Plan may affect this.
Legal experts from the Scopelitis firm have pointed out that the legislation doesn’t specify it applies only to intrastate operations in New Jersey, indicating a potential breadth that includes all commercial vehicles. They also noted that the state has not yet clarified the specifics of enforcement.
NTP Introduces New Warranty Package for Electronic Systems
National Truck Protection (NTP/Premium 2000) has unveiled a new extended warranty package designed to cover essential electronics and systems in commercial trucks.
The Electronix Package was first launched at selected Class 8 dealerships as a warranty option in 2023. Following positive feedback from dealerships and fleets, NTP is expanding this package nationwide to include light- and medium-duty trucks in Classes 2-7.
This warranty package covers various systems, including adaptive braking, anti-roll sensors, collision avoidance, navigation, and more. It can be combined with any NTP or Premium 2000 warranty.
According to NTP’s Chief Commercial Officer, Geoff Stigler, as commercial trucks evolve with advanced electronics for greater operational efficiency and driver assistance, the failure rate of these components is also increasing as trucks age. The Electronix Package aims to address this gap with comprehensive coverage.
Owner of Trucking Company Indicted for Tax Evasion
The owner of an Ohio trucking company has been indicted on seven counts related to tax evasion.
A federal grand jury has charged Alice F. Martin, 59, from Louisville, Ohio, with attempting to evade income tax assessments from 2013 to 2018. She is also accused of evading payment associated with prior taxes, penalties, and interest from 2011 to 2013, connected to her company, Martin Logistics.
According to the indictment, Martin allegedly devised a plan to dissolve Martin Logistics under tax debt pressure to make both herself and her company uncollectable by the IRS. She purportedly instructed an employee to create a new business, TSA Transportation, to act as a façade for her operations. Contracts were primarily bid under TSA’s name, but revenues were funneled into a different account controlled by Martin.
During the period from 2013 to 2018, she allegedly directed around $18 million in gross receipts from TSA contracts to a bank account linked to another entity she owned. Despite this, Martin reportedly neglected to file tax returns and disregarded tax obligations, leading to over $3.6 million in unreported income and evading approximately $1.2 million in taxes owed for the specified years.
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