— Daimler Trucks will pay a quick $10 million to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and an additional $15 million if the automaker doesn't follow the rules of a consent order related to previous recalls.
According to federal safety regulators, Daimler Trucks failed to recall vehicles in a timely manner and dropped the ball when reporting other requirements.
NHTSA opened an investigation in 2018 to investigate seven recalls and allegedly found Daimler was too slow to order the recalls and failed to submit certain field reports. Daimler disagreed with NHTSA's findings, but the automaker agreed to the federal consent order to "administratively resolve these issues."
The consent order is for two years and could be extended by a year if Daimler Trucks doesn't meet the demands of the federal order. The automaker must pay $10 million upfront, while another $15 million is a deferred penalty and could become payable "under specified circumstances."
Daimler Trucks must also pay $5 million for what NHTSA calls a “Performance Obligation Amount” to create advanced analytics to detect and research safety-related defect trends.
Daimler must meet regularly with NHTSA to talk about possible safety problems and new training will be developed for employees concerning recall reporting requirements and procedures.
The action against Daimler Trucks joins a separate civil penalty against Mercedes-Benz for $20 million following an October 2018 investigation.
Safety regulators alleged Mercedes failed to timely notify customers in 2017 regarding about 1.4 million recalled vehicles.
