Your Trucker pre-trip: Pilot Flying J ex-president on house arrest

Here are five things worth knowing in the world of trucking today, Feb. 21:

1. Pilot Flying J ex-president on house arrest

Mark Hazelwood, the ex-president of truck stop chain Pilot Flying J, has been placed under house arrest as he awaits sentencing for his conspiracy and fraud conviction. According to a Knox News report, Hazelwood is facing two decades in prison after being convicted of scheming to cheat the company’s trucking customers. Pilot Travel Centers CEO Jimmy Haslam has consistently maintained his innocence in the fraud scheme and has stated he was not aware of any wrongdoing. Hazelwood and others involved are set for sentencing on June 27.

2. Trump suggests federal gas tax hike for infrastructure. Who else supports it?

Days after his State of the Union address, President Donald Trump suggested adding 25 cents to the federal gas tax as a way to raise money for his $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan. The federal gas tax has not been increased since 1993. A recent report from Forbes takes a look at who else has raised the idea of increasing the federal gas tax in the last two-and-a-half decades. According to the report, truckers are among some of the groups in support of a hike. Forbes has more.

3. USPS driver shot and killed on I-30

A United States Postal Service truck driver was shot to death on Interstate 30 early Monday morning, CDL Life News reports. When Dallas, TX, police responded to the scene, they found the box truck had crashed into a guardrail on eastbound I-30, and the driver had been fatally shot. According to the report, the incident is being investigated as a homicide, and no arrests have been. Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to call Dallas Police Homicide Detective Walton at 214-671-3632 or 214-701-8453.

4. Trucker cited, taken out of service for hauling violations

A truck driver was cited for multiple violations for hauling too many vehicles on Interstate 41 in Milwaukee on Monday. According to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report, the 39-year-old truck driver had been operating illegally by loading six vehicles on the trailer, plus pulling two from behind – a pickup truck with a car wedged into the pickup’s back. In order for the driver to operate legally, only four vehicles could have been stacked on the flatbed. The report also noted that the car atop the pickup truck was secured by only a tie strap attached to the door handle of the pickup. The driver, an owner operator, was cited for five safety and equipment violations and the truck was taken out of service.

5. Florida ordinance would set ‘designated truck routes’

Florida Trucking Association President Ken Armstrong is opposing a proposed ordinance to regulate trucks to only approved routes, the Jacksonville Business Journal reports. According to the report, a city committee’s ordinance would regulate trucks to 52 designated routes, 10 alternate routes, and state roads. Truckers who deviate from those routes, would be fined $100, the report notes. Armstrong told the Business Journal that the proposal “has to be defeated,” and that the trucking community didn’t get to weigh in until the routes were already chosen. The Business Journal has more.