The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on Wednesday, Nov. 16, declared Maryland-based Gunthers Transport an imminent hazard to public safety and ordered the trucking company to cease all transportation services immediately. FMCSA said it 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.

FMCSA says Gunthers was shut down immediately after agency 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 says it 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, according to the agency.

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