Fighting an Inspection

392.2 (and all mudflap violations) is a State violation. Not a Federal one. No idea how many CSA points. Many State violations do not carry CSA points, to my knowledge.

To the folks who say it is all about the $$$$$ - how many dollars does it generate when I list a violation on an inspection report? If I do not issue a traffic citation - none! So, how is it all about the $$$$$?

 

I know some factory mudflaps can sail, that's why there is co's advertising Anti sail mudflaps. and it IS about the money! I just respectfully disagree as I know your posts are respectful so not trying to be disagreeable. I got pulled in rest area for insp. august 10:00 a.m. told the officer I just had a full insp last week 15 miles away in another county. no violations. after this full insp he said my tag light was out, do I HAVE A REPLACEMENT BULB?

I said sure do right here next to my seat. got out walked to back with the officer, 30 sec to pull of cap pull old bulb, replace, it lit up. good he say's, be right back.went to his car to do paperwork & print out everything. came back with my violation on tag light. What is unsafe about a tag light being out, especially in daylight? I replace on the spot! still the violation. officer say's it does not go on my license no fine.

Now here is where I say it's about money. the violation is listed as REQUIRED LIGHT inoperable. NOT TAG light! it DID go on my C.S.A. SCORE. when a potential co looks at my score it affects my hiring eligibility. C.S.A. scores hinders the o/o to negotiate a decent rate if the o/o has their own authority. a big co like I am leased to with a lot of marks on the c.s.a. can make it hard for the co to demand a decent rate on freight.

I have had drivers say well the light was out & if any light is out it is a violation, my bad. this is the brainwashed mindset, where some drivers sound like the d.o.t. law enforcement has discretion. a tag light out in daytime, fixed on the spot & still the write up. do not tell me it's not quotas cause it is, just like the steak dinners given out in IL. where that info got out by mistake. the d.o.t. are told to go FIND violations. they were not this way when I started trucking.

when I told the officer I had over 1.5 mil miles over 16 years no accidents, and never a violation other than tag or marker light, ever. been stopped many times, many scales, never, brakes, tires, brake tail light, log, e.t.c. 16 years marker & tag the only 2 violations in my driving history that does not account for anything?


Every light has to go out sometime. we cannot predict when, but when we do pretrip & it is good & post trip is good, what should we do? what I did is all we can do. it's about the money, my money, my freedom.

 

I'll give you another example of money being involved. my last co I was leased to was giving $300.00 to any driver who got a no violations insp, no matter the level of insp. I got one, nice to get the $300.00 the co had to try to get their C.S.A. score down to get a better rate from the ins co. I am not saying that every write up is money right there & then for the state, but it cost us drivers. if the co has higher ins cost due to a score, than the drivers has a higher cost of operating 1 way or another, sooner or later. the bureaucracy of law's aimed at o/o just like the e-log or anything like a computer that is going to tell me when I am tired & when I am not, by telling me when I can or cannot drive. my body tells me when I am tired.not a computer. sorry for the rant, blame it on bc2013 he got me started.



stay safe everyone.

 

First, a tag light is a required light. Is it a real big deal? A serious violation? Naw. But it IS required.

Second, I do have to join you in your rant about CSA. I agree, but for different reasons.

Back over 20 years ago when I started this business, after driving for several years, my relationship with you was much simpler. I would do safety inspections and if you had minor violations, you basically got a fix-it-list of things to do later on. No big deal, no penalty.

In a nutshell, this is how it went:
- on one hand is the regulation book, FMCSR regulations
- on the other hand is your truck in my inspection lane - in whatever condition it happens to be in at the time
- - - any discrepancies were listed on the inspection report. OOS violations were fixed on the spot. Minor violations fixed whenever. Traffic citations issued for only very serious violations.

Then the CSA program comes along. Somebody takes my inspection report after I turn it in and assigns point values to almost every violation. Changes the whole relationship between you and I.

You know what? My job has not changed. I still do the same inspections on the same equipment using the same regulations. I do not know, understand, or need to know about CSA points. If a required light is out, it is out. If a tire is flat, it is flat. A brake is either in, or out of adjustment. I am not out to get you, or anybody. I am inspecting a list of equipment that SOMEBODY ELSE (not me) has determined is required. I am just the guy in the striped shirt throwing the flag, not the guy making the rules.

And it never has been about money. I get paid the same low rate no matter how many inspections, violations, tickets, etc. All fines go to the local school district, and I could care less if they ever get another dime. So it is not about money at all, at least not on my end.

So, there is the rant on my end about the CSA program.

 

thanks for the read. what gets me is the attitude, not that any officer has been less than polite, it's more like they are robots now, not people. on my very first insp, over 16 years ago, the officer was friendly. when he got done, he told me if I ever get into a accident & someone died, my equip will be gone over like fine toothed comb along with my log's, e.t.c. and if anything is defective weather related or unrelated to accident they will try to hang me. his exact words. he also noticed so many things that showed him I do care about my equip & safety. mentioned, how my air lines were new. tires, brakes, he could see this driver cares.

many d.o.t. in the past told me they can tell when a driver deserves a break. if they see several violations, they give no leeway, cause they can see the driver is careless by many violations, but if they look into the past violations & driving record & see that all are very good & only a minor violation like tag light, they would not even think of giving a write up. on one past roadside insp I had 1 tail light out on trailer. as I tried to get out of truck, officer held the door & laughed, you don't have to replace right now. wait til you get to a truck stop, rest area,, somewhere off the road. not a write up.

when in the TN scale south bound side I 65 I did have 1 marker light out. I fixed it then, the officer wrote fixed on sight. fine with me. the last one which I speak about with my tag light. I had mentioned that to him & he said he could not do that, maybe Tn has different law's. I am not mad at any officer, more the system that have to follow, however they do have discretion & I do not know if it comes from supervisors or themselves, but they seem to take nothing into consideration. except for if I can write something up I will.

 

this is a awesome post.. i appreciate you doing your job. i just wish more scale masters/DOT officers knew what CSA was all about and how it works.. it's killing us drivers... i haul containers (intermodal) and i do a honest pre-trip before i leave, at the customer and when i take my 30 minute break. there's been several times where i get pulled into a scale and get written up for "inoperable required lamp" on the chassis... i try so hard to tell the the guy that's doing my inspection the issue with these crappy chassis and lights.. and how many times i've changed him that day.. no good.. i walk away with a inspection report and a light violation which is a total of 8 points on my CSA record for the next 3 years.

the best part is.. when the inspector tells me "it's just a warning, you're okay." I tell them about CSA.. and they dont want to hear none of it.

How about this -

I was going down US 41 in Wisconsin and I got randomly picked off by a DOT trooper. He conducted a level 2 inspection on me and of course, these crappy lights on these chassis are bound to go off and this one surely did. So he tells me to get out the truck and take a look at the lamp that's not on.. all i said was "officer, i know what you're going to give me a violation but can i please explain..". He said nope, it's not working when i saw it, its a violation. Ok cool.. so then he says come to my squad car and sit with me while i do your paperwork.. and i told him, "sir.. do you know that i can just fix it infront of you and it will burn out a mile down? What do I do then? And what about my CSA? Cant I just fix it infront of you and you could possibly just issue me state warning citation that doesnt tie to the inspection report."

His reply:

"I'm going to make you fix it anyway. I dont care about CSA or how that system works. And If I did, it still wouldnt change a darn thing about how I do my inspections. I do not give no leeway for these type of things and if that lamp does happen to burn out again, you're fair game. Your a professional. You signed up for this".

Gave me my report and off he went. Sigh. I kid you not - there is some serious ######## out there. I was kind of flabbergasted by his response but it doesn't shock me.. I've met a little worse.

Nothing beats the WISCONSIN Scale I39 in Beloit.. gave me a violation for windshield obstruction. My GPS was 5 1/2 inches from the windshield. Dude came with a ruler and measured it.. gave me a violation for it. Lol. The law is 6 inches. Yeah, I messed up and was off by 1/2 inch but jeez man.. I actually asked him.. sir, are you serious? Your giving me a violation over 1/2 inch of my GPS being misplaced? He totally ignored the hell out of me and walked back into his little CUB hole and came back with the report and just kind of threw it to me and said leave. He either hates the company I work for or he had a serious bad day.

 

I feel for you personally, but clearly you recognize a problem. #### near ever container chassis I see wobbling down the road is junk. Drivers should be refusing to pull them, but they can't because some lesser driver will just come along and pull it anyway.

As long as they're getting pulled, the chassis owner isn't going to do anything about it so unfortunately it needs to come back to the drivers deciding not to move ###### equipmemt. The only way that's going to happen is when the consequences for pulling junk are worse than the consequences for not working at all.

 

True statements.

Like I said, we inspectors have nothing to do with CSA. It is not so much that we do not care about the CSA system, but we have no control over it or input regarding it, no training on it. CSA is someone else taking our data after the fact and assigning points to it.

At the time of inspection, required lights either work, or they don't. Tires are properly inflated or have the proper tread, or they don't. Brakes are either in, or out of adjustment tolerance. An inspection is a snapshot of the vehicle condition at that moment.

Yeah, sure, some things are easily and quickly fixed, and some things may go out as soon as you leave. All we have responsibility for is the vehicle condition right here.

 

Thats is why I won't mess with containers..... Been there tried that, the companies that own those chassis don't care if they get fixed or not, and most of these small container haulers (BC Transportaion in new joisey for example) pass any repair cost to the driver, even if it was bad before the driver picked it up.