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john in la

Well-known Member
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What part of in La do you not understand
Got stopped and inspected at the Louisiana scales.
Been about 4 years so I guess I was due.

Did a full inspection.
Brakes; lights; steering play.
Even wanted to see my warning triangles and spare fuses.
Only thing he did not want to inspect was my log book.
I had not been more than 172 miles from home in the past week so I am not required to have a log book.
Could not find anything wrong.
Then he says lets bust the seal and have a look inside the trailer.
Now I know I'm in trouble.

Sure enough the stuff on the very rear of the trailers is not blocked and braced and is starting to fall over toward the rear door.
He places me out of service for unsecure freight and tells me I might want to call for help.
I tell him I have a few straps in truck.
Can I fix it by strapping it in myself.
He says sure.

Since I do not load; unload; or ever see a trailer with a open door it is a company violation.
He sites the company for unsecure freight.
Notes in the out of service area fixed by driver on site.
Puts a CVSA sticker on my trucks windshield.
(This is a sticker that tells other DOT I have been inspected with no issues found)
Gives me the paperwork and tells me the state will contact the company to let them know if the ticket is a fine or warning.
He said most likely a warning but he was not sure.

Really nice DOT officer just doing his job; just like me.
I never understand why some of you have so many problems with the DOT.
Keep your truck and drivers in order and never have a problem.
Drive broken junk and try to skirt the law and yes they can be your worse nightmare.
Funny how it is always the DOT officers fault when he catches you with broken junk.
 
Reminds me about when when I was in charge of a small city water system. The guy in charge of the system the next city over was always complaining about the Dept. of Environmental Protection and their regular inspections. I never could understand him because I got along with them great. Kept the system in good shape and followed all the rules. I never had a bit of problem with them. As you say, they were just doing their job. All I had to do was to do my job!
 
Nice to know the DOT officer is doing his job and your company is doing their job by having a safe truck.
Safe trucking.
How many miles have you logged in over your time as a truck driver?
 
I had a bid once, for two years, at my trucking job hauling out of Dow Chemical to our terminal where I crossed the scale on I-75 twice a day. Always had doubles and lots of placards on them. Over that period I got to know about every officer that worked their and got sent around back about once a week or so. They even sent me back and used me when they were training new officers one time and held me up over an hour showing the trainees what to look for. I never received a ticket or had a violation during that time other than something minor that I was able to correct on site. Most officers treated me good as they were just doing their job.
 
We had a conservation officer here who was like that. One of the funniest, most likable guys I ever knew, but he'd write his own mother a ticket if she was violating. He ticketed his own teenage son when he was riding a dirt bike where he shouldn't have been on state land.
 
Never had a problem with any of them. Be polite and you get it back. Be a jerk and get an attitude and you get that back. Been at Holland for 33 yrs. 23 in the city, the rest on linehaul. Been stopped probably 20 times since working here. Only write up I got was for a trailer that dog tracked about a foot to the left. I knew why I was getting stopped. I had already written trailer up in dvir book. It was a fix it ticket anyway. 6 weeks vacation and 75 working days left and I'm done! 1.5 million in the 9 years of linehaul, 1 speeding ticket for 5 over in a 55 zone. No accidents.
 
That's my experience as well. Very rare that the state patrol has given me any trouble in any state I've been in.
 
Just a couple of things caught my eye.

Breaking a seal is the big one. That breaches the security of the load and makes the driver and company responsible for the product being correct in condition and count. In 20 years I never had a DOT officer want to break a seal to inspect the load. Some of the sealed loads I hauled could get somebody in BIG trouble for breaking one of those seals! I have hauled currency paper to the Bureau of Printing and Engraving. Breaking that seal would get you time in Leavenworth making big rocks into little rocks. I have also hauled load of coins out of the U.S.Mint in Philadelphia. Another seal not to be tampered with unless you want the full wrath of the Treasury department to descend on you.

Second thing I see is the logbook thing. I was under the impression that logbooks were a thing of the past with everything being taken over by electronic logs. Am I mistaken? Or is your company one of the last few holdouts?
 
Any seal can be broken by any DOT officer as long as it is documented on the manifest and replaced by the states DOT seal.

A ELD (electronic log) is your logbook.
Me saying logbook is just the old man in me coming out.
Only long haul drivers I know of that are still exempt from ELD is livestock haulers.
Them bull haulers are exempt from so many logbook rules having even a paper log is meaningless.
 
In my near 46 years and 5 million plus miles, I have dealt with all kinds. Some officers were jerks, others very polite. Some just looking for any meaningless, obscure outdated thing to write a ticket. Others actually interested in safety.
 
75 percent of them are looking to ruin your day,,and are not happy till they do,,just to prove that they are the One in control...they would give you a ticket for not tucking in your shirt if they could...
 
This story was told to me by a friend in my small home town. The guy was an OTR trucker and was exactly four hours from home and only four more hours for the day before he had to shut it down because of hours. He gets pulled over and there were two guys doing an inspection, one was a guy in training, basically his first day in the job. One guy explaining to the other how to do an inspection, for FOUR hours. He was then told that they had found no infractions. My buddy was then informed that his four hours was over his driving limit and he couldnt drive any further. The inspectors told my buddy to follow them into the nearest town where he had to park it overnight. His story, not mine, but he swears its true.
 
Some of them are OK.

I once pulled through a port of entry at Marysville, Kansas hauling a pickup on a trailer. The officer asked me if the pickup was for sale or for my own use. I told him it was for sale.

He said, Dang, I wish you'd have said it was for your own use. If it's for sale I have to do a bunch of paperwork and charge you $5.00. Now, let's start over. Is the pickup for sale or for your own use?

I told him it was for my own use. (Not a fib, really, I probably used it a few times myself before I sold it).

He said, OK, you're good to go.

If he noticed my trailer was too wide to be legal in Kansas, he looked the other way. My trailer is 102 wide and 96 is legal in Kansas.
 
John when my son was a bull hauler he joked about bull haulers always being overweight, over hours and over speed. Mostly true. I don't think my son was ever inspected but what officer would want to inspect a stinky loaded bull rack with errant missles flying out the side.
 


Good on you John! In the two years that I had my tri-axle dump truck I got one full inspection and I got a sticker as well. So many people these days seem to feel that they need to propagate conspiracy theories by pointing out something that on the surface looks bad if one is uninformed. Naturally any type of enforcement for anything makes a good target. The DOT inspectors are out there not to make money for the state which of course would be impossible, but simply to improve public safety. A side benefit of their work is that they reduce the number of truck drivers that get jailed for manslaughter.
 

"Just doing the job" doesn't mean much on its own. That did not work out so good for the German guards at the Nuremburg trials. It depend entirely on the job and whether or not the job involves encroaching on other peoples liberty.

I spent just over 20 years as a police Lt. on a department of about 450 officers so I get the point, but there were times I did not have the heart to "just do the job" because the job was simply wrong.
 
(quoted from post at 07:26:41 07/24/21)
"Just doing the job" doesn't mean much on its own. That did not work out so good for the German guards at the Nuremburg trials. It depend entirely on the job and whether or not the job involves encroaching on other peoples liberty.

I spent just over 20 years as a police Lt. on a department of about 450 officers so I get the point, but there were times I did not have the heart to "just do the job" because the job was simply wrong.
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1948, what you say is true to a degree, but our nation became great and has stayed great to a large degree due to the efforts of our people coming together and sacrificing their interests for the greater good. Our current society, though there are many exceptions, is all about the individual rights. "it is all about me!"
 
Thanks for a very informative discussion. I know very little about DOT rules, regs or inspections. Yesterday I was passed by a 18 wheeler log truck, going well over the speed limit and obviously in a big hurry. I was hoping the logs were securely chained down, because if they bounced loose a bunch of us following, were dead meat. I am glad to know the DOT has the job of keeping compliance up by frequent inspections.
 
Glad you had good luck today, we got cited in NY state for having the wrong HUD stickers on our trucks with transfer tanks in the back, apparently there is a different sticker for trucks transporting motor fuel. Ok we get the proper sticker for transporting motor fuel. The next year get stopped for having the wrong sticker, we said yeah we have the one for transporting motor fuel because of the transfer tank. Nope tank is under 100 gallons so exempt and doesn't count we need the regular sticker. Sure be nice if they all knew their own rules before writing tickets
 
My son and his family are on the road through Tennessee from Texas on their way to see Dollywood. On their second day away from home they were on the Interstate behind a tractor-trailer rig that I wish could have been stopped for an inspection before my grandkids were anywhere close to it. One of the rear tires on the trailer de-laminated, and a large fragment hit the upper right side of their windshield. The safety glass held, but was badly damaged from what I could see in pictures they sent.

Butch
 
Ah what spare fuses????? even my old 1977 I H 4300 only had a fuse for the radio , the C B, the scanner and my Midland company radio oh and Jake brake that got tossed and replaced with a breaker after the fuse blew on the Pa. Pike coming out of the one tunnel and made for a wild ride down the mountain . Everything else was breakers and come to think about it even the 1970 R 700 Mack was all breakers except for the radio. The last big truck i drove was a 1998 I H 9400 and again all breakers except the radio and a radio is not something that should it fail affect the safe operation of said truck. Loved pulling RGN's as ya would have to be real skinny to crawl under one of them even when empty . also having fairing helps keep them from crawling under . I so enjoyed hauling the oversized as i was never bothered , Most times i could not get on the scales due to the design of the scale house , N.C. built this fancy new scale on I 40 and with those tire presses i hauled if i went on the scales that fancy bay picture winder would have been removed with the left side of the load . and with each load i would go in and park off to the side and take my permits in and after the third time i walked thru the door i would get OH it's YOU again , GET OUT OF HERE and see ya in two weeks as every two weeks i would haul another press . The one old scale i had to cross was here in Ohio , The old weigh master there hated me because the first time i pulled in he had all these traffic cones set up so that he could see if you were on his scales or tryen to keep one tire off the outside . I knocked them all down and scattered them all over the place . Made him mad . Two weeks later we did it again . I told him that i'll do it again in two weeks . He told me that in two weeks when i come in just pull around back and come in waving your permit . don't come across the scales . I got to see your permit. . i asked him if there was anything else i could do for him and he siad being smart , Well ya could bring me a Whopper Curly fries and a diet coke . I'll pay ya . So that was what he got i would stop at the truck stop above the scales and go to Burger King and get him his supper .
 
I think they need to start pulling over everybody hauling stuff if it appears to not be loaded well, not just the professional. Maybe you wouldn't see so many couches, tables and chairs on the side of the road.
 
Suppose to be one of every fuse the truck uses in a little bag in box.
Some boxes have them in a spare fuse slot in box.
While the box has mostly push button breakers it does have some fuses.
I do not know what the fuses operate and could care less.
I drive the truck. It is someone else's job to work on it.
 
Yes, being polite and treating people the same way you want to be treated goes a long way in tense situations. It is human nature to blame or demonize people who tell you things you don't want to hear even if it is true.
 
Stephen
A DOT/State trooper once told me he has no authority over vehicles that weigh less than 10,000 lbs.
What a crock of crap.

While it is true the DOT has no authority over vehicles that weigh less than 10,000 lbs; The State trooper in him does.
What he was really saying is doing a inspection on a vehicle that weighs more than 10k lbs requires what we call the DOT long form.
And a DOT officer has a quota of so many long forms a month.
So stopping a pickup with a sofa falling out the back does nothing to make his quota and since was just a waste of his time to do work not required of him.
 
I would agree, and include British Columbia, Canada. I was stopped at one of their scales, driving our spare tractor, and didn't have correct permit, (actually a felony) they explained it to me, gave me the number to the Ministry of Transport, for my office, so they could file for a temp. permit. When the office tried to email me the permit, it wouldn't download to my cell phone. Young lady officer could see I was having trouble, told me to wait a minute, went to a computer, found the permit, downloaded a copy for me, and wished me a better day. I thanked her for her courtesy, her reply was, You're welcome, I'm just doing my job.
 
Ive never really had any trouble with them. If Im stopped I remain polite and professional and answer any questions and give them any documents they ask for. Theyre doing their job and it can be dangerous at times.

Best wishes yall be safe be kind to one another

John T
 
I've never had a problem in 20 years but I'm always polite and not a SMARTASS. So if you think 75 percent are out to get your wrong maybe it's you.
 
Never cited for broken stuff...always the log book at 2:00 am when they pull you over for a light out. Come walking up and say, I thought you had a light out...guess not but might as well look at your log book....sneaky cops.
 
(quoted from post at 09:59:57 07/24/21) My son and his family are on the road through Tennessee from Texas on their way to see Dollywood. On their second day away from home they were on the Interstate behind a tractor-trailer rig that I wish could have been stopped for an inspection before my grandkids were anywhere close to it. One of the rear tires on the trailer de-laminated, and a large fragment hit the upper right side of their windshield. The safety glass held, but was badly damaged from what I could see in pictures they sent.

Butch
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Butch, that truck could very well have just passed inspection.
 
It might be a waste of his time making quotas but I saw someone run over a sofa ontime and it flipped the car into a ditch. There really should be some guidelines on hauling stuff in any vehicle. I see stuff all the time that should be illegal. I followed a guy in town once that had a welder on wheels on a flat bed pickup without anything tieing it down. He would leave the stop light and it would roll almost off the back and then the next light it would slam against the cab. The guy never did pull over and fix it.
 
I got pulled over by DOT here in MO. They tried to get me for a number of things.
#1 was lack of front axle brakes which they soon learned they could not get me for since a 1963 Diamond-T did not have them when new.
#2 they tried to get me for no seat belt but again they had to let that by since again it never had them.
But they did make me adjust the brakes but most of the tiem that is a given in my area.
 
A '63 truck was probably older than the cop that stopped you. In MN you need antique or collector plates to qualify for those exemptions now.
 
(quoted from post at 06:13:19 07/24/21) [b:d633e73cc3]Any seal can be broken by any DOT officer [/b:d633e73cc3]as long as it is documented on the manifest and replaced by the states DOT seal.

A ELD (electronic log) is your logbook.
Me saying logbook is just the old man in me coming out.
Only long haul drivers I know of that are still exempt from ELD is livestock haulers.
Them bull haulers are exempt from so many logbook rules having even a paper log is meaningless.
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No sir. I was required to ride with drivers hauling nuclear materials. If stopped for any reason, we are required to hand the officer, DOT, or state patrol a warning to stay at least 20 feet from the trailer. The seal was accompanied by several locks. Anyone touching anything on the trailer is going to be locked up by the NRC. I moved special nuclear materials all over the south and west for several years. We were only stopped once, and the patrol guy wanted nothing to do with our cargo.
 
Yes the truck was older then the guy who pulled me over. That was also back in the late 90s/early 2000s. Sure wish the old truck still ran but due to a cracked #2 sleeve it doesn't and to fix it I would have to do all 6 sleeves due to being an obsolete engine and parts are hard to come by. I'd love to have it up and running if for no other reason then to P.O. my neighbor.
 
We got a locals lady that will harass the heck out out anyone she pulls over. My uncle had one of his trucks placed out of service for loose steering shift, it was 6 months old! Tge worse part is her son hauls grain on a truck that should be in a scrap yard.
 
(quoted from post at 19:36:38 07/24/21) Sort of funny how they where afraid of glowing in the dark. LOL But since I was on a Nuc sub I understand radiation protocol
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There was a time, in the early days when SNM movements was transmitted to the state patrol, and DOT authorities. Before my time, but there was a security leak somewhere and it became clear that the Soviets knew every truck, and every route we were taking with nuclear materials. After that, communication with anyone stopped, and we went out in plain vanilla trucks and trailers. But, most times we had a pilot and/or tail car. If we had a pilot/tail, the NRC guys were in that. They did not have a sense of humor, and would brook no interference.
 
Did he make any mention of straps being illegal for anything on wheels or cam over binders ?
cvphoto95498.jpg

The real dot
 
IA and MI are the ones with the most rude obnoxious cops I have ever dealt with. Ia on I-380 southbound. Stopped for no reflective tape on the truck mudflap brackets pulling a stepdeck you can't see it unless you bobtail. Made a big deal about something not really very important as well as the reflective tape on the top corners of the sleeper in back. Again not very important in the name of safety. Ia was always something stupid and petty like that. Sleeper had been painted and apparently the guys missed the tape and so did I. Acted like it was a matter of life and death by them. Ha dan issues about license plate light one time. Like that was a deadly issue too. I mean yes they are doing their job. It just was the way they went about it though. The rest of the country was never treated like I was in IA and MI. ID and most of the western states would go out of their way to be helpful with things if you asked about them. Over 20 years and 15 as a motor carrier.
 
Thought was DOE that handled that particular freight? Have see it in high security convoy and in stealth transport.
 
Won't go into detail, but a lot of it depends on the material being moved. Isotope, enrichment, quantity, etc. DOD, and DOE both move weapons grade enrichment. It was rare for a private carrier to move that. Commercial utility grade enrichment, and some medical grade isotopes were moved by private carrier.

My typical trip was from E TN all the way to General Atomic in La Jolla CA. The rules for drive and rest time are also very different but that was on the driver, not me. Plenty of trips into Pantex N TX as well.
 
(quoted from post at 13:39:35 07/24/21) Glad you had good luck today, we got cited in NY state for having the wrong HUD stickers on our trucks with transfer tanks in the back, apparently there is a different sticker for trucks transporting motor fuel. Ok we get the proper sticker for transporting motor fuel. The next year get stopped for having the wrong sticker, we said yeah we have the one for transporting motor fuel because of the transfer tank. Nope tank is under 100 gallons so exempt and doesn't count we need the regular sticker. Sure be nice if they all knew their own rules before writing tickets
Click to expand...

Actually it's your responsibility to know the requirements for each state you drive in. HUD stickers are the NYS Tax Depts baby.
 
(quoted from post at 16:04:07 07/24/21) Stephen
A DOT/State trooper once told me he has no authority over vehicles that weigh less than 10,000 lbs.
What a crock of crap.

While it is true the DOT has no authority over vehicles that weigh less than 10,000 lbs; The State trooper in him does.
What he was really saying is doing a inspection on a vehicle that weighs more than 10k lbs requires what we call the DOT long form.
And a DOT officer has a quota of so many long forms a month.
So stopping a pickup with a sofa falling out the back does nothing to make his quota and since was just a waste of his time to do work not required of him.
Click to expand...

Horse puckey. I spent a heck of a lot of time doing police work other than just DOT stuff. And I never had a "quota" and there is no such thing as a "Long Form". And no, you can't do a DOT inspection on a non-CMV, weight isn't the issue sometimes,= as with hazmat, but in general terms you know that 10,001 lbs GVWR is the magic number. You make a great post and then the whiner in you comes out. Why do I even read this crap...
 
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