Daimler Trucks hit with $15m-plus penalties

ALLEGED FAILURE TO RECALL vehicles in a timely fashion and to comply with other reporting to the United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will cost Daimler Trucks North America $US15million to $30m.

The NHTSA said in January that an investigation uncovered the failures and resulted in a consent order, which includes a potential total civil penalty of $30m.

The consent order includes both financial and non-monetary provisions designed to improve DTNA’s compliance with the law and to improve the company’s safety practices.

The company will, for instance, develop and implement an advanced data analytics programme to enhance its ability to detect and to investigate potential safety defects.

It will improve its IT systems to collect potential safety information from its business units more effectively – and to report that accurately to NHTSA.

And it will develop written procedures and conduct training for its employees on its legal recall and reporting requirements, take actions to ensure that its reporting to NHTSA is complete and meet regularly with NHTSA to discuss potential safety issues.

The consent order is for two years, extendable by an additional year if warranted. The order requires payment of an upfront $10m penalty and the spending of an additional $5m on specific projects to enhance safety – with an extra $15m deferred penalty that may become payable under specified circumstances.

T&D