Originally Posted by DaltonR121

I appreciate everyone's input! It has shed great light on rules and regulations. It's not just slack adjusters though, it's maintenance as a whole. It took me weeks of begging and pleading to get steer tires. The only reason I got them was because of the 72 hour scale watch that was starting up a couple weeks ago. The company tries to cut back on spending and it's the maintenance of the trucks that suffers. I'm sitting in a truck in Texas right now 1,300 miles away from home and had to add 3 gallons of oil to this truck. And it took 3 gallons last week too. They just keep putting things off until something blows up. Our trucking boss is great and will go to bat for us whenever possible but the money issue is above his pay grade unfortunately. I'm usually a local driver with the exception of this week and they run us ragged. We don't get days off. I know I could simply refuse to work because I'm out of hours but I'm just trying to make a living. 16-18 hours a day in this truck is common with this company. They have us log loading and unloading as off duty while we're outside of the truck, helping load, and strapping down. I understand the fact that I would be doing myself a favor by leaving but while truck drivers are a dime a dozen, that's not always the scenario for truck driving jobs. Decent jobs anyway. The pay here is decent, the equipment as a whole is just mistreated.

You won't stand up for yourself for whatever reasons you believe are valid. You've asked a question for advice you don't intend to heed.

When you kill someone, because of an unsafe vehicle, you won't have a leg to stand on. You WILL go to jail, and you WILL deserve it.

Originally Posted by joseph1135

After your company has a few trucks that have been caught, they bump the fine up figuring that you as the company should be informing the drivers of the restriction. How do I know? I saw the summons.

well you will have to show me that summons, otherwise, again, a BS posting from you regarding the fines and the amount charged. Again, I LIVE HERE and in the local newspaper, all that is ever reported is the dollar amounts collected thus far from stupid truckers who either do not know how to read, or tempt fate and cross the bridge. if it is clearly said on the signs as to how much the fines can be, how can they go above that..??

your posting(s) holds no value, until you can produce the copies of those summonses. which you cannot.

Originally Posted by revelation1911

I would see a problem them collecting above the posted max. fine from someone if they chose not to pay it.
Just finished a great breakfast at Chris's exit 67 I 81 and ready for a nap.

exactly..they DO NOT ante up the fines from the stated max. someone NEEDS to provide proof of that claim, which i think he cannot do, so again, he is "B.S'ing us".

Originally Posted by Gizmo_Man

exactly..they DO NOT ante up the fines from the stated max. someone NEEDS to provide proof of that claim, which i think he cannot do, so again, he is "B.S'ing us".

Did the state send out thank you cards to all those that paid? Sure seems like a stiff fine. I don't go through toad island less I have to the ONLY truckstop there
charged me 10 dollars to park there once and I filled up my truck.
It only has a 40 gallon tank and they said it was 50 gallon min.( I bought 37gal.) Never liked there since.

Originally Posted by joseph1135

The reason why your ticket was $5000 was because so many of your companies' drivers got nailed. Same with us. I pointed out to the safety guy that not one of the loads we take up there require we take 95 straight up, rather go over to 495, as it's a bit quicker. And more direct.

Originally Posted by Gizmo_Man

if i am not mistaken, the driver got/gets an $85 dollar ticket for "failing to obey a traffic control device (the detour signs)", and the company get's "up to" the MAX $3,000 fine (says so right on the signs) for being over-weight, over axles allowed (2 axle max). it was not a $5,000...i know, i live here.

Mine was in 2008 and I was grossing 79,500. In fact the leo said "we got a good one". They had a set fine plus weight and those that went to court got it knocked in half. They have changed the signage since I went through there. I believe they changed it in 2009. I haven't been through that section in 10 years. This is I-95, not some side road. Sure the locals knew about it. OTR drivers didn't. What got me was right at the exit I seen two trucks coming the other way. With the confusing signage at the time I really thought it was okay. I had $200K worth of steaks and was leary of jumping off in slum town. I had no idea what was down there. I took a chance and lost.

I loaded in south Boston with a short run to Philadelphia. I personally called my fuel manager and asked him if I could run straight down I-95 so I could barely beat rush hour and not detour over to I-84. He told me sure, go ahead and run it. You'd think a fuel manager would know what is going on with the interstate system.

I've done my homework after the fact and called several people involved. I think part of the reason they changed the signage. I even called the smart ### DA about the signs. His comment was "You truckers think you can do what you want". I knew it was a lost cause talking to him. I read the bridge inspection report and it was deemed safe for ALL traffic. They restricted trucks to slow down deterioration.

The last I checked, over 10,000 truckers have been fined on that bridge. I think it started in 2006. Why isn't this major thoroughfare fixed yet? It's a money racket so they can get truckers to pay for it. They get highway funding. They had over 50 years to save for repairs. Crooks I tell ya!