A surprise truck inspection blitz was conducted in Nebraska on Tuesday which saw state troopers place 43% of the vehicles they inspected out of service.
It’s enforcement blitz season, with the International Roadcheck right around the corner, but State Troopers in Nebraska are getting a head start. Without announcing anything, Nebraska State Highway Patrol and Lincoln police conducted inspections on CMVs on Tuesday, inspecting a total of 104 vehicles.
Of those 104, 48% were declared out of service due to violations. In fact, a total of 384 violations were documented. That’s an average of 3.7 violations per inspection! In addition to the vehicles, 4 drivers were placed out of service for not having a valid commercial driver’s license.
During inspections, drivers racked up a total of $7,315 in fines.
Officials say they will continue to carry out additional surprise inspections to target commercial vehicles that would not normally pass through a weigh station on their route.
Source: omaha
I have often wondered, purely from an enforcement standpoint, why they ever announce these “blitz’s”. I guess Nebraska figured the same way and that delivered realistic data regarding what is going on out here as opposed to data that shows only the best of situations when everyone is notified in advance to get ready. If roadside “blitz’s” were totally unannounced, then maybe there would be much better efforts by owners placed on making sure trucks are up to snuff all the time.
As much as we don’t like truck inspections. .they should be enforcing that within the city limits.that drivers have shitty trucks,that dont really take care if them..we as road drivers always have to be aware if any little thin in our truck..they’ll be surprise how many bad trucks they can find..
Cheap rates, cheap trucks, cheap repairs. Rates are down so this doesn’t surprise me one bit. Some states always have stings on days that end with Y
Wow, that was a quick $7325.00 !!!
I am a mechanic out here in Omaha and I will tell you I see you a lot of straight trucks and local drivers turn down getting dot repairs because they are hardly ever pulled over
It is easy to say repairs are needed,hard to pay for when companies and brokers keep more of the pay than the truck receives. Load rate is already low without brokers trying to lowball driver rate.
Agree.. we are parked so much now. Rate offers like PA to IN 44lbs for 1.28 a mile, PA to WA 1.54 a mile, PA to AR 1.19 a mile. Of course we say no. Less than cost but I guess someone takes them because they don’t figure repairs/maintenance in. Then the ” blitz ” gets them and more of their $ goes away. We just took a load that was posted for 1325 $ in the AM and at lunch , the broker offered it to us for $ 1700. And no, I don’t believe for one minute that they went back and negotiated for more money with the shipper. Yep, squeeze the truckers dry, don’t matter cause there are a zillion more hopeful people out there to lie to.
Brokers are right up there with Tele-Evanglists & politicians.
CHR is leader of the pack. Need I say more?
Yes you do. Every one of the ten biggest trucking companies broker more freight than CHR. Check the load boards. You ever see CHR’s name? How about Schneider, or JB Stupid (read Hunt)?
If you cant make money at it.. Why take it.. Its alot easier to go broke at home.. Than it is out on the road someplace… If these brokers cant move the load.. Then the price HAS to go up enough to where you can make a profit.. Or they go broke.
Most of the time the original price quote was good. But by the time several agents and CHR and CHR wanna b’s got a hold of it and scrapped off more than their commission it paid the truck about 1/2 the original rate quote.
Well isn’t Nebraska special. They should be really proud of themselves (sarcasm)
This is why I hung my keys to be a company driver. Not only is one stressed from ELD which the last hour of driving is a waste looking for a place to park, but always wondering if this will be the day one gets pulled over to hand DOT my money. Always had a clean truck clean license and obeyed the law but come in, a DOT officer will find something if he has to meet quota
I’m an o/o from the west coast and my truck is maintained. I have no issue with getting inspected any time. Nebraska doesn’t hold a candle to California or Oregon on ambushing you. If you read the article they were focusing on trucks that did NOT cross scales regularly. And like the mechanic said they wont spend the money for maintance. I make plenty of money to fix my truck as needed. So to DOT any time any where.
Right Ray,
If you your truck well maintained, clean and up to part by DOT regulations then you should never have to worry about being pulled over. I had several Level 1 inspections and passed all of them. Out of all my 16 years of driving, I never had an overweight ticket. If it ain’t right, I don’t bother with it. My license is my lively hood and no one is worth that.
47% of the trucks inspected were OS.. Thats pathetic.. And like somebody else said.. Why announce these inspections? So the owners of those 47% just stay home for a few days… Funny thing is.. One of those 47% put out of service… Could have been killed.. Or kill somebody.. Think about it… It could have been you or your family… Dead because some cheap back sided idiot thought he could drive that truck with what ever it was that was wrong down the street.. And here is one reason why truckers have such a bad reputation.. These owners probably even knew things werent right.. Why not put an uzi on the front hood?
And then we will get ohhhh stupid inspections… Funny thing these inspectors just might have saved your life… Think about it.. Or somebody elses life… Can they be a pain in the butt? Sometimes… But be nice to them.. They are just doing their job.. Just like you.. Just something to think about…
They are putting trucks out of service for things that are not likely to cause breakdown and accidents. How is a dirty seat belt going to be harmful to the public? How is having your ELD stop working and officer doesn’t want to get the hard copies faxed to him going to be harmful to the public? Stupid things that have nothing to do with safety. It is purely a revenue enhancement en devour by the NE SP ..We are not the bad guys. There are far more unsafe vehicles and unsafe drivers not in a CMV sharing the road with us today. Cops don’t want to bother them because they may be the governors second wifes 3rd born step child driving it.
You cant be placed oos for a dirty seat belt. And you are required to have a record of duty status you know this. If your eld is broke you are the one that needs to get a paper log and the previous 7 days faxed to you by your company no one else. I doubt there is a rash of eld failures a mile from a weigh station and no where for me to get a fax and paper log. You should already have the log in your truck to be safe then its a matter of getting the fax.
Completely agree Doug. It’s my belief the ones who complain about the inspections are the ones who don’t make repairs or they got popped on an inspection. Those who get tickets or placed out of service should do better pre-trips and fix the problems they know they have. If they get a federal inspection at a reputable shop then get a ticket for something they maybe to have the shop pay the ticket and fix the problem free. Now, I know that doesn’t get CSA points taken back but it would probably make the driver feel better about making the shop liable for it too.
WORD on that.
If my ELD failed the last thing I would do is drive through a scale least I had my old logs faxed to me. And I’ve had them for 14 months now, never ever had a bug.
Recently I’ve seen the Cali Highway Patrol pop random inspections in cities pulling the dump and local trucks. I’m not complaining. So many pieces of garbage that are in poor maintenance driving local because “no scales”. Same in British Columbia, my home.
5 years of driving OTR, never been put out of service. Worst thing I’ve had is a warning about a log inaccuracy, no ticket. Do your goddamn pretrip and get things fixed. Hell sometimes all it takes is a bunch of zipties or electrical tape to be legal again.
You hit the nail right on the head trucks need to be safe but they have gone way overboard…Just job security for the commercial vehicle inspectors aka overpaid welfare recipients
Ya just like the truck driver is just doing their job and trying to make a living…just like you or anyone else. Cops need to crack down just as much on all of the asshats driving like retards around big trucks. I agree the inspections need to be there to catch the slackers, and to keep the public safe… But truck drivers are entitled to have safety on their side too. How about roadside inspections that target non CMVs that have the capability to go over 65 mph? Bet they could make a killing in fines for no insurance, expired registration/inspection, and non-working e-brakes… And probably a whole lot more. CMVs are NOT the only ones with safety issues on the road. Eventually, truckers are going to hit a breaking point and refuse to move cargo until something changes…
Ok, up to a point I agree with the blitz inspections ,but. When 85% to 88% of car truck accidents are caused by the car driver , aren’t the wrong vehicles being inspected this way.
If the Scales had a sign up that said all vehicles pulling trailer must enter scale there would be a lot of pissed of pickup drivers. No safety chains. no lights hooked up and most of the time cargo not secured properly if at all. Now that would be a blitz we could all get behind. it has been proven time and time again we are not the bad drivers on the highway. Yes, there are some driving a CMV that should not be but considering the number of cars versas the number of trucks on the road at the same time. We are the safest of them all. Drive a Semi? You have a target painted on your truck that says stop me I have deep pockets.
By the Feds own stats 75% of accidents are caused by car drivers —–so why are they so hard on us and when will they start thinking that we get hurt or die just like the people driving cars . When will we get the protection we deserve ?seems to me they haven’t this deal backwards. I am a o/ o and have been for ten yrs now.I believe I have enough experience on the road to credibly say truck drivers r not the problem when it comes to the root of safety problems that lead to accidents and this problem probably will never be resolved because of the general public would revolt if they where held to the same standards as the trucking industry.none the less nobody really cares about truck drivers they have had great success with the current vision the public has that we r dangerous and menance on the road.qhen they r practically driving how ever they want with what ever they wish. Some states r even repealing the annual inspection sticker for cars.Maybe iam wrong or just bios because iam a trucker but iam going to say it anyway.I feel that a huge reason that these issues are approached the way they are seems to be tied to some form of political correctness .Its easy to prosecute the truck because people are generally scared of them in our society.obviously the dot has done a superb job enforcing the safety of the trucks but have been a complete failure on the part policing the cause of the failure to act own their own intelligents gathered. It not going to change anything to keep adding more laws and ideas to make the trucking safer untill the problem of the non trucking individuals out there are address that are causing the majority of the safety problem .
The feds regulate us. They dont regulate most cars. The states do and most dont have criteria for puting cars os.
These inspections were targeted at trucks that were “off the menu” and would never go near a weigh station.
Yes, I am for this sort of pop quiz being conducted but more on a nationwide level. Get the illegal stupid and dangerous super trucker off our roads and out of my way. Clean up our Interstates and eliminate the bad boys and girls. Drive NASCAR if that is what you like but do it safe out here with your truck
Fix road less Trucks out of service
Ya this a problem with LOCAL trucks that usually don’t go over scales. The company and the driver get lax and they let things slide that normally don’t get fixed cuz hey they don’t go over scales. Half of them are even overweight. As a trucker I’m glad these states do surprise inspections on these rigs. I see these rolling trash cans going down the road all the time knowing that they’re not crossing any scales.