June 13, 2001

The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) today announced that Starving Students Moving Systems, Inc., which also does business as Official Moving Systems, of Brooklyn, N.Y., a for-hire carrier that primarily transports household goods, was served with a "Revised Notice of Claim" letter for $45,000 in civil penalties.

The FMCSA uses the notice of claim to initiate enforcement actions for violations of the Federal Motor Carrier Commercial Regulations (FMCCR). This revised claim letter alleges that Official Moving committed multiple violations of the FMCCR. The violations were discovered during an investigation conducted by FMCSA's New Jersey Division.

FMCSA conducted an investigation after receiving numerous consumer complaints. FMCSA investigators subsequently cited Official Moving for violations involving failing to charge applicable tariff rates; failing to provide the required consumer information, "Your Rights and Responsibilities When You Move," which is an accurate summary of its dispute settlement program to shippers; failing to release shipments moved under a non-binding estimate upon payment of 110 percent of the estimated charges (that is, the carrier demanded more than 110 percent); failing to weigh interstate household goods shipments in the required form and manner; failing to reweigh household goods shipments upon request of the shipper; and requiring shippers to sign documents releasing the carrier from its liability.

Official Moving will have an opportunity to contest the alleged violations and the amount of the penalties in an agency proceeding.

Consumers may file household goods or other commercial motor carrier complaints on FMCSA's nationwide complaint hotline at 1-888-368-7238 (1-888 DOT-SAFT). To further protect consumers, a commercial complaint form is now available on The Safety Violation and the Consumer household Goods Commercial Complaint Website Hotline at http://nccdb.fmcsa.dot.gov.

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