The Expired Decal That Put A Truck In An Indiana Impound Lot

A fuel tax sticker started the whole thing

On September 6 an Indiana State Police trooper assigned to the Criminal Interdiction Unit stopped a blue Freightliner on eastbound Interstate 70 in Putnam County, near mile marker 31, a little after 5 in the afternoon. FreightWaves reported the account on September 9. The trooper was not working a tip. He saw expired International Fuel Tax Agreement decals on the cab, and that alone opened a motor carrier compliance inspection.

The fuel tax violation was enough to put the tractor on a hook. During the inventory search that comes with an impound, the trooper reported finding a duffel bag on the sleeper berth mattress holding about 126 kilograms of cocaine, roughly 277 pounds, with an estimated street value near $3.8 million. The driver, Harpreet Singh of Greenwood, Indiana, was charged on September 8 with dealing in cocaine as a Level 2 felony and possession as a Level 3 felony. He had told the trooper he was moving an empty trailer from Memphis to Indianapolis.

The carrier says it knew nothing and it still owns most of the damage

The tractor ran under IN VEIN STUDIOS LLC of Decatur, Alabama, USDOT number 4242807. A company officer, Anuj Kumar, told FreightWaves the company had no involvement, said the tractor had been in for repairs, and disputed the Memphis pickup the driver described. Take that at face value, because it changes nothing about the next ninety days. An owner can be completely in the dark and still absorb almost everything that follows.

Criminal charges attach to a person. Records attach to a number. The inspection, the violations written on it, and the equipment sitting in a lot all land on the carrier side of the ledger, and the renewal after that gets underwritten off exactly those things.

Physical damage does not pay for a truck the government took

This is the part small fleets find out the hard way. Commercial physical damage forms are written to pay for direct loss to the vehicle from things like collision, fire, and theft. Most of them also carry a seizure or confiscation exclusion, which pulls out loss caused by a government authority taking the property. Read the exclusions on your own form before you ever need them, because where that language sits, an impound and any forfeiture that follows are yours and not the policy's.

Downtime works the same way. A truck in a tow yard earns nothing, and standard physical damage coverage is not a lost revenue product unless you specifically bought something that replaces income. Storage charges accrue daily and they accrue for as long as the case takes.

Cargo coverage does not follow contraband

A motor truck cargo policy insures lawful freight you accepted under a bill of lading. Contraband is not covered property on any cargo form, and here the trailer was reportedly empty anyway. That is the point worth keeping. The exposure in a case like this is never the load, it is the tractor, the authority, and the operation attached to them.

Liability sits in a similar place. Commercial auto liability responds to bodily injury and property damage arising out of the use of the truck. It is not a criminal defense product, and intentional or criminal conduct sits outside what any liability form agrees to pay.

What the renewal looks like after a story like this

Underwriters price a small fleet off two things, the loss history on the DOT number and the drivers on the schedule. A felony arrest during a roadside inspection reaches both. The driver comes off the schedule immediately. The inspection stays visible on the safety record. The unit is unavailable, so the miles that were paying for the policy stop while the premium keeps running on its original schedule.

None of that is a claim, which is the strange part. Nothing gets paid out and the account still gets harder to place. That is worth understanding before it happens rather than during the phone call where somebody explains it to you.

The cheapest protection here is boring

Expired fuel tax decals cost nothing to fix and they are the entire reason there was a lawful stop, an inspection, and an impound. The same is true of a stale MCS-150, a lapsed registration, or a filing that does not match the name on your authority. Every one of them is a legitimate reason for an officer to spend an hour with your truck.

The second piece is knowing who is in your sleeper and what your policy actually excludes. Ask your agent for the seizure language, the criminal acts language, and whether you carry anything at all that pays while a unit is out of service. Most owner operators have never read those three items.

We write commercial truck insurance for owner operators and small fleets, and we will walk your exclusions with you instead of handing you a certificate and disappearing. Get a truck insurance quote in under a minute on our quote form, or call or text 423-264-4255 and talk it through with a person.