The nation’s biggest truck stop chain Pilot Flying J is once again facing fraud accusations following 2013’s FBI raid.
The 2013 scandal was ignited when it was discovered that Pilot had defrauded trucking companies out of rebate money. Pilot quickly settled with most of the trucking companies, but some that did not settle are now leveling new accusations against the company.
Pilot Admits to Failing to Honor Promised Discount
These companies say that they entered into an agreement to buy fuel exclusively from Pilot in exchange for special rates. These rates for most companies were cost plus a few cents per gallon. Pilot has admitted that it often failed to give trucking companies the promised discount.
Trucking Companies Say Pilot Misrepresented Diesel Costs
Further, the trucking companies allege that they were led to believe that the “cost-plus” offers were based on Pilot’s actual fuel costs, but they believe that Pilot misrepresented their own fuel costs to take advantage of them. In reality, the “cost” represented by Pilot was the industry average diesel cost plus taxes and fees, which trucking companies say is much higher than what the country’s leading diesel fuel distributor pays.
Since the 2013 FBI raid, 10 Pilot employees pled guilty to fraud charges, but CEO (and Cleveland Browns owner) Jimmy Haslam says that he wasn’t aware of the scam and has not been charged.
Sources:
Fox News
The Wall Street Journal