Regulators shut down Santa Inc. for violating hours regs, not meeting medical requirements

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Santa-truck2The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has shut down an owner-operator listed to be based in the “Arctic region north of Alaska,” for disregard for the agency’s hours-of-service regulations and losing his medical certification due to a BMI that is too high, according to an anonymous source from the agency.

Santa Inc. and its owner, Kris Kringle (known to many customers as Santa Claus or simply Santa), operate mostly seasonally, with business activity picking up a great deal in late December before falling completely off by January.

Kringle could not produce for inspectors logs for his prior seven days and has not taken a 34-hour restart. But the source said Santa may not reach the 168-hour threshold to take a restart, as a year at the North Pole (another location listed for Santa Inc.) is only 160 hours long.

Kringle also has not taken a 30-minute break in many decades, the source said, but because of on-duty time spent at shippers — and not driving — he’s out of hours.

Moreover, Kringle’s Body Mass Index exceeds the FMCSA-maximum of 35, and his neck circumference is greater than 20 inches. More than likely, the agency source said, Kringle has sleep apnea.

And due to an admitted diet of milk and cookies, the FMCSA source said, Kringle’s blood pressure is 150/95 — a greater issue to his medical card status.

If he takes to the air, as he’s been known to do, the Federal Aviation Administration is waiting on him, and Maryland plans to shut him down there for missing scales.

If they can’t get him there, California has reported it is waiting for him to enter the state and plans to issue a hefty fine for using eight reindeer that violate the state’s emissions standards.

UPDATE:

A listing in the FMCSA register shows a Dec. 23 listing for a carrier granted new operating authority. The carrier is listed as Claus LLC, but as the agency generally is inactive during the holiday season, it may not notice the carrier appears to be a “chameleon carrier” until after Claus LLC ends its seasonal work this year.

Note: This post was adapted from an article published on CCJ sister site Overdrive.