Oil company fined for driver violations Rockland firm to pay more than $36,000

ROCKLAND – A midcoast oil company will pay $36,000 in penalties after pleading guilty Tuesday to 71 motor carrier violations, including letting oil truck drivers drive too long and failing to comply with state drug testing rules.

Rockland-based Maritime Energy cited troubles managing its 170 drivers’ hours.

In addition to a $31,000 fine, Maritime has to pay 14 percent of the fine in surcharges, plus $710 toward a victims’ compensation fund, for a total of $36,050.

On Tuesday, the company entered the pleas in 6th District Court. The infractions occurred in 2000.

“One thing that created this is probably our own growth,” said Robert Duke, operations manager at Maritime Energy in Rockland.

Maritime Energy serves Knox and Waldo counties and portions of Lincoln County.

“The struggle is managing the drivers’ hours,” Duke said, pointing to a rule limiting drivers to 60 hours of driving in a seven-day period.

When company drivers exceeded those limits, it was by only a couple of hours, he said.

A January 2001 compliance audit of the previous six months by Maine State Police also revealed that Maritime Energy did not always comply with drug testing for its drivers and failed to monitor the results of a drug-testing violation, Duke noted.

When new drivers were hired, they were not always included in the pool of carriers to be randomly tested for drugs, Duke said.

In the drug-test infraction, a driver tested positive for drug use and was supposed to attend four drug-counseling sessions. He went to just one session, Duke said.

Other infractions were in administrative record-keeping, he said.

According to Duke, other violations included failure to document drivers’ road tests, failure to maintain employment applications in a qualified file, failure to investigate drivers’ backgrounds, and incomplete drivers’ records.

Duke stressed that the violations were all “incidents that did not result in any harm.”

“We understand the regulations,” Duke said. “The audit was a real wake-up call for us.”

After the audit, the company hired a safety-training coordinator to bring the business into compliance with regulatory requirements.

Maritime Energy also has launched an annual compliance audit, performed by the Maine Motor Transport Association, to ensure compliance.

In the two years since the audit, the company has been fully compliant and will continue to be, Duke said.

“We still feel the fine is extremely high compared to other motor carrier violation fines we’ve seen in the past,” he said.