The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has declared Maryland-based Gunthers Transport LLC an imminent hazard to public safety and ordered the trucking company to immediately cease all transportation services. FMCSA issued an imminent hazard out-of-service order against Gunthers following an exhaustive review of the company’s operations, which found multiple hours-of-service and vehicle maintenance violations.

“Safety is our number-one priority,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “Commercial truck companies that recklessly disregard federal safety regulations will be shut down and removed from our roadways.”

Gunthers was immediately shut down after FMCSA safety investigators found patterns of hours-of-service and vehicle maintenance violations that substantially increased the likelihood of serious injury or death to the motoring public. FMCSA discovered that the company allowed its drivers to falsify their hours-of-service records and exceed the 11-hour limit for daily driving. In addition, Gunthers did not require its drivers to perform pre-trip vehicle safety inspections, operated trucks that were in such poor condition they were likely to break down and posed a high crash risk based on its on-road performance record.

“FMCSA has zero tolerance for unsafe trucking companies that place the traveling public at risk. If they do not play by the safety rules of the road, we will take away their ability to operate,” said FMCSA Administrator Anne S. Ferro.

A copy of the imminent hazard out-of-service order can be viewed at http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/documents/about/news/2011/GUNTHERS-TRANSPORTS-LLC.pdf.