Transportation law involves everything related to travel infrastructure. It includes regulations for private and commercial vehicles, air and water transport.
Developing policy for transportation is a challenging area of practice. It requires a strong understanding of aviation, maritime, rail, and highway traffic science. It also requires reducing complex information into understandable and enforceable laws.
Taxes
Generally speaking, transportation and logistics law involves creating and enforcing regulations related to transport infrastructure and how things are transported. This can involve economic rules like capital allocation and pricing regarding routes available to transport operators and how much they cost. It also can include operating regulations such as speed limits and permits for vehicles, cargo, and passengers.
A tax is a mandatory payment or charge governments collect from individuals and businesses to help pay for general government services, goods, and activities. A few common taxes are property taxes, payroll taxes, consumption or excise taxes, and sales taxes.
Depending on the elasticities of supply and demand, a tax may be absorbed by the supplier (in the form of lower pre-tax prices), by the customer (in the form of higher post-tax prices), or by both the seller and the buyer. Governmental agencies, such as rulemaking fees, licensing fees, and zoning fees, can levy other taxes. Occupational taxes and licensure fees may also be levied on professionals engaged in certain activities.
Insurance
Transportation law encompasses most aspects of travel and commerce on the streets, highways, air, and water — including regulation of vehicles, aircraft, and vessels; implementation of safety standards; and oversight of commercial freight shipping activity. Some specific areas of transportation law are admiralty or aviation law (for matters arising on the water or in the air) and contract law or torts law (which apply specialist legal rules to contracts of carriage, relations between carriers and passengers in public transport, and shippers and cargo owners).
A seasoned transportation attorney can provide legal advice and representation to companies in all industry segments. Potential clients range from private fleets to commercial interstate trucking companies, airlines (both passenger and commercial), package, parcel, less-than-truckload, cargo freight carriers, and third-party logistics providers.
State and federal laws dictate minimum mandatory liability insurance coverage requirements based on the nature of a company’s operations. A transportation lawyer can help ensure a business meets all required insurance standards. When accidents occur, they can also assist in handling personal injury and wrongful death claims.
Licensing
Licensing agencies handle many legal matters that come up in transportation law. For instance, a person wishing to drive a vehicle must obtain a state license. The Department of Motor vehicles is usually where one gets a driver’s license and other transportation-related documentation.
On a broader scale, the government sets up laws and regulations that govern the entire road, rail, and air travel system. These include safety guidelines like seat belts and airbags to limit commercial truck drivers’ daily rest. The federal government also creates and enforces regulations that oversee maritime operations and shipping activity.
Transportation attorneys are often called upon to assist clients with major accidents, fires, and chemical releases. They must be prepared to provide emergency response and crisis management services 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Regulations
The government makes regulations to keep transportation safe and the economy moving. Regulations are a powerful tool that can be used to punish businesses for not complying. They come from federal agencies like the Department of Transportation (USDOT), and they can also come from state agencies that regulate things like vehicle registration and insurance minimums.
Regulations can be made with broad discretionary authority, or they can come with a mandate. For example, Congress might give the DOT the power to set safety standards for car manufacturers or require airbags in all vehicles sold in the United States.
The USDOT can also use the threat of federal funding to compel states to pass laws. For example, the USDOT threatened to withhold highway funding from any state that did not lower its drinking age for drivers. State laws can also impact trucking rates and capacity if they make it harder for small carriers to recruit drivers or increase the costs of driver’s hours. For these reasons, shippers need to understand the regulatory landscape.
Administrative Hearings
Whether it’s a ferry vessel full of passengers and cargo stuck in a remote airport or a trucking company with a permit to deliver goods across the country, transportation issues often require a lawyer. And these issues are complex because they involve many different branches of government.
An administrative hearing is when an impartial person, an administrative law judge, presides over a dispute between you and the agency regulating your business. The hearing resembles a judicial proceeding in some ways, with pre-trial matters, the opportunity for you to present and question witnesses, and a final judgment.
Those accused of failing to follow transportation laws face civil penalties and, in some cases, criminal charges. They may also have their licenses suspended or revoked. If you’re involved in an administrative hearing, you’ll need representation from a transportation lawyer familiar with the special rules and regulations that govern this industry. You can find such an attorney through the state’s bar association or private practices and in-house legal departments specializing in transportation.
