Company owners sentenced to four months in prison for hours of service violations

WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 9) — The owners of a New Hampshire trucking company were sentenced to four months in prison followed by eight months of home confinement for willfully allowing drivers to violate hours of service rules.

Charles Georgoulakos, Jr., and his brother, James Georgoulakos, owners of C&J Trucking Co. of Londonderry, N.H., admitted they tried to hide driving infractions from federal safety investigators by paying drivers “off the books” for illegal driving time through an account other than the normal payroll account .

The pair must also serve a one-year probation. C&J Trucking, a waste hauler operating throughout New England, was placed on two years probation and fined $25,000, the maximum amount allowable under law.

The sentences concluded an investigation which began when one of the trucking company’s drivers was involved in a collision on Interstate 93 in Londonderry on August 2, 1995, in which four people were killed.

“This enforcement action demonstrates we are serious about our safety action plan which stresses improved safety through stronger enforcement and tougher penalties,” said Federal Highway Administrator Kenneth R. Wykle. “Those who disregard truck safety regulations and endanger the traveling public will feel the full force of federal response.”

On May 25, Wykle and Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater announced a safety action plan that combines stronger enforcement, tougher penalties, new regulations, advanced technology, and education and research to reduce by 50% in 10 years the number of highway deaths involving commercial vehicles.