OSHA Fines Houston Crane Company

A Trucker’s Refusal to Break the Rules Sparked this OSHA Investigation & Penalty 

Crane Masters, Inc., a Houston crane and rigging rental company, coerced its truck drivers into ignoring federal hours-of-service (HOS) rules — and the company fired truckers who wouldn’t get on board with committing those violations. That’s according to a report from investigators at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), as well as a federal administrative law judge who backed up OSHA’s findings in June 2024.

While this case serves as a key move in the affirmation of workers’ rights to safety, it’s also a stark reminder of:

• How pervasive HOS violations are
• How employers can bend the rules 
• How safety gets compromised in the pursuit of profit 
• How risky, unsafe work environments can cause real harm

Here’s why.

OSHA Investigation Finds Crane Co. Encouraged HOS Violations

Federal regulators kicked off their OSHA investigation into Crane Masters in July 2020 following the submission of a formal complaint. Filed by a trucker who had worked at Crane Masters, the complaint alleged that the company had: 

• Assigned him back-to-back driving shifts: The trucker drove commercial vehicles that transported cranes and crane booms weighing between 30,000 and 50,000 pounds (lbs). After being on duty for 19 hours on June 4, 2020, the trucker’s supervisor doled out another longer-haul shift to the trucker.
• Ignored HOS rules: Turning a blind eye to federal regulations, management at Crane Masters did not keep track of hours-of-service rules when assigning shifts. Leaders even disregarded the trucker’s warnings about HOS violations, threatening the worker’s job simply because he had raised a red flag about a major safety issue.
• Fostered an unsafe work environment: Not only did Crane Masters reportedly encourage its truckers to disobey hours-of-service rules, but the company also reportedly turned a blind eye to logbook forgeries and omissions, inviting their truckers to fudge the numbers and somewhat “habitualize” their HOS rule-breaking. That contributed to a culture of “fear” at Crane Masters, creating what the trucker in this case deemed a “chilling environment” in which “a lot of illegal activity was going on.” 

On November 17, 2021, OSHA investigators issued a final report, finding “reasonable cause” that Crane Masters had violated federal law, ordering the company to pay a fine and make some key changes. At that time, Crane Masters was given 30 days to object and request an Administrative hearing. While the company exercised this option immediately: 

• An attempt to settle the matter in March 2022 was not successful. 
• A hearing eventually occurred in Houston in October 2022, with a handful of witnesses providing testimony while an administrative judge conducted a thorough review of the available evidence.

Ultimately, Administrative Law Judge John M. Herke backed up OSHA’s findings, stating that the trucker had “proved by a preponderance of the evidence that [Crane Masters] violated [federal law]” and that remedies for the trucker “must be determined.”

Why HOS Rules & Violations Matter

Established in 1938 by federal transportation regulators, hours-of-service rules have evolved over the years to focus on eliminating fatigue-related wrecks among commercial drivers. To do that, HOS rules create specific limits for truckers and other commercial motorists, restricting how long these drivers can: 

• Operate commercial vehicles without taking a break or resting
• Be on duty before having to clock out and go off duty
• Work within a given 24-hour period
• Drive commercial vehicles in a given week

Adherence to HOS regulations has generally been documented via trucker logbooks, with handwritten logs as a former standard that’s largely been replaced by electronic logs. 

Crucially, trucker fatigue can be a natural response to overworking, and it can be just as debilitating as drunk driving. In fact, the latest research shows that:

• Driving after zero sleep for 18 hours can result in similar impairments as motorists with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08. That’s double the legal limit for commercial motorists in most states.
• During roadside inspections conducted by federal regulators in Nov. 2021, nearly 9% of commercial drivers had at least 1 HOS violation. About 3% of those violations were also associated with motor carriers, drivers, or commercial vehicles that had been placed “out of service” by regulators due to past issues. 
• Roughly 3 in 4 commercial motorists have admitted to making mistakes behind the wheel because they’re exhausted.
• As HOS rules have become more stringent in recent decades, fatal 18-wheeler accidents involving HOS violations have also declined, dropping ~32% since 2017.

The story told by the latest statistics and HOS violations highlights how pervasive driver fatigue is, how risky it can be, and how it’s preventable when commercial motorists and the companies that employ them follow the rules. 

Houston Co. Must Pay Trucker, Make Changes

Issuing compensatory damages to the trucker in this case, Judge Herke ruled that Crane Masters owed the trucker nearly $15,000, including: 

• $5,263.20 in back pay
• $7,000 in pain and suffering damages
• Interest

While no punitive damages were ordered, Judge Herke did rule that Crane Masters must post specific notices for their employees, publish notifications on their website, and expunge any official records it entered against the trucker (in “Drive-A-Check Reports”). 

Commenting on this resolution, OSHA Regional Solicitor John Rainwater stated: 

Once again, the Department of Labor has vigorously enforced the rights of employees who report safety or regulatory violations… [These] rights are crucial to the safety of employees and the public at-large.

With this case wrapped up, it remains to be seen if it will impart any lasting lessons on Crane Masters or serve as a deterrent for other companies that skirt the law or outright break it. Regardless, truckers and other workers can gain some assurance from this case that their rights matter — and that they don’t have to fight injustice alone.