What To Do After a Trucking Accident in Georgia

Hi, I’m Roger Ghai and I wanted to talk today a little bit about trucking accident cases. Specifically, actually, there are two types of motor carriers in the United States today. One of them is named interstate motor carrier and the other one is named an intrastate motor carrier. The difference between the two is that the trucking company which provides services across state lines is the one which is known as the interstate motor carrier and they are required to be registered with the Department of Transportation.
The other one which is the intrastate carrier is providing services and transportation just within the boundaries of any given state in the country. There are, with regard to interstate motor carriers, that is the trucking companies that cross state lines, federal rules and regulations that must be complied with. In fact, they are governed actually by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
As I said, they must register with the United States Department of Transportation and obtain a United States Department of Transportation number on their vehicle and for their vehicle which they must affix to the side of the vehicle. There are actually federal regulations which govern interstate motor carriers that is the trucking companies that transport material or services across state lines. They are governed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and those are federal laws that govern those trucking companies.
Now, if the trucking company is only providing services within any given state. They are, as I said, in the intrastate motor carrier and those federal regulations do not formally apply to them, but they’re — Usually what happens is the legislature through the Public Service Commission will go ahead and, for the most part, they’ll adopt the federal regulations. Before a motor carrier can operate across state lines, they must register with the United States Department of Transportation. They must affix to the side of their truck or some portion of their truck that U-S-D-O-T sign or that number that you usually see on the side of their truck.
If you’ve been involved in a trucking accident and you have a question as to whether the motor carrier was a interstate motor carrier or whether the trucking company was an intrastate motor carrier, please feel free to contact my office at 770-792-1000. Thank you.