If you drive a truck for a living or own a small, medium or large sized truck fleet, you should know how dangerous it is to the company and to the driver of the truck to receive traffic or criminal tickets. This article talks about some examples of tickets against the company or truck and tickets against the driver of the truck, but it is by no means an exhaustive discussion of the topic. Briefly, this article will initially talk about DMV and criminal court tickets faced by truck drivers and then by DMV and criminal court tickets faced by owners of the truck.

The driver of a truck must comply with all regular traffic laws such as speeding, red light, disobey a stop sign, etc. plus additional rules which apply only to the driver of a truck.

There are specially designated routes that are found in the NYC traffic rules which indicate where a truck is allowed and what route it must follow. It is not necessary for a sign to prohibit truck traffic in order for a costly off truck route violation to be sustained against the driver.

Like at TVB DMV court in NYC, drivers of trucks can receive pink/red summonses to come to criminal court, such as 346 Broadway in Manhattan, for a whole host of regular violations such as reckless driving or speeding etc. In addition to these criminal violations, the driver of a truck may receive a pink summons for operating out of class (not allowed to drive a truck of the size he or she was driving) or knowingly driving an overweight truck etc. It is important to note that drivers of trucks may receive summons for them to appear personally and at the same time receive summonses for the company or corporation that owns the truck to appear.

Owners of trucks may have to appear at TVB DMV court for receiving a yellow summons in New York City or a white summons outside the City. Service of the summons on the driver is deemed proper notice on the owner of the truck. So, make sure you instruct your drivers to show you all summonses they receive when driving the truck, so you can sort out whether they belong to the driver or to you. Some yellow tickets can be particularly costly such as an overweight ticket. There is no plea bargaining in TVB DMV court in NYC therefore you are found guilty you will pay the statutory fine.

Owners can also receive pink summonses (in NYC) (or white summonses in other parts of NYS) made out to the corporation that owns the truck. In NYC, the corporation cannot appear by an officer or manager but must appear by an attorney. If the summonses are for equipment violations the judge will often dismiss the summonses for proof of repair or compliance with the law if proper proof is provided to the attorney. Some criminal summonses are quite costly and can run into the thousands of dollars. It is always a good idea to consult with a qualified attorney if you receive a criminal ticket for your truck.

Michael Spevack is a trucking defense traffic ticket lawyer with more than 15 years’ experience in beating traffic tickets for trucks.