Passed full Level 1 and got a sticker for the windshield

I'm going to state the obvious about any inspection. Be courteous and professional interacting with the inspector.

They have a job to do. They also have a quota of inspections per year or quarter (I'm not sure which) in order to keep their DOT certification.

I always address them as "Sir" or "Mam" and...THANK them for bringing another set of eyes on my rig. That sometimes get a bit of a shocked look, but sets the tone for the rest of the inspection.

That's quickly followed with, "How can I help you?" Yes, I do know my rights. I do have the right to be an #######. I also have the right to choose to cooperate.

My paperwork is all organized in a binder. Everything is where it should be and anything that might expire has an alert one month in advance on my calendar app, so I make sure to get that replaced well in advance.

My company requires an annual DOT inspection every six months. Those inspections can't be done just anyplace that does DOT inspections. They have to be at locations that are approved by my company, places that are very thorough and can perform any corrective work discovered during inspection.

 

It's never old hat.

CELEBRATE.

I remember when I passed my first big inspection almost like yesterday.

It IS old hat by now, but celebrate. You only pass inspection once. (HE HE HE... /tease)

 

My last big inspection was a little interesting. Here we are with a Mack Dump, a beaver trailer on pintle with a ford 550 shovel and so on. Wouldnt you know it the Owner was really nice to the Female State Bear (Policewoman in her 20's) doing the inspection. In fact he was super nice.

My foreman teased me bad by saying I came off as a jealous suitor put out by watching the object of my affection get attention from a dominant male. (HA. YA RIGHT)

After we finished laughing and giving each other a hard time over that State Bear, the Boss told us to shut up a minute and listen. The truck had a handful of issues wrong with it that would have been a OOS, for example the bottom of the exhuast pipe had a hole big enough to stick a deck of cards facing outwards into the right side traffic. Gee I wonder how that got there.

And you think Mrs Bear will catch something like that. Normally she would but with Mr Polite and helpful standing between her and pipe getting roasted at high idle...

It would be months that year until we finally stopped teasing one another. For what it's worth, I never saw that State Bear again. (Just as well, she is probably Colonel something or other by now) Even today I feel bad about how we managed to pull that inspection off. We had a 20,000 dollar jobsite that needed doing. No time for a mess.

For what's its worth we fixed all those issues in time. It's all about the money.

 

I’m a new driver. 6 months in. 0/2 on inspections so far. I dread them.

 

Use every one of those write ups and make a list of things to check. A driver in my opinion will take some time at least once a week (at least) and give their truck a good going over. This is hard to do if you are doing drop&hooks 2 or 3 times a week. However learn those things that DOT cops look at. Keep your truck and yourself clean. Check those tires. At least every other month get a mechanic to check your brakes. If they refuse to do this write the shop up. I did this once. Trust me with the crap these safety depts are dealing with in regard to bad inspections, there are few shops that want a safety man up in their rectums. I have seen this happen once and it was not pretty.

 

I’ve been doing my best and learning from it. Seems like trailer abs lights are 75% of the time nonfunctional. I had an expired cab card registration for one, ended up going through my whole binder and updating everything. The wheel seal leak was ridiculous. Even the roadside guy was like “you wouldn’t have seen that unless you went up under there with a flashlight”. So I guess now I gotta add rolling under the truck on a creeper to my daily checklist lol. I did pick up a new super bright flashlight for those dark trailer pickups, my old one wasn’t enough to see everything clearly.

Being the new guy you get all the oldest crap equipment and have the least experience pretripping. Kinda sets you up for a rocky start.

 

This job done properly is not an easy job. Anybody that tells you it is, well they are talking out both sides of their mouth. It is not easy to remember everything you have to be responsible for. Time and experience will guide you. In my early days I had some great help when it come to doing these inspections.

 

Trailer ABS systems are often a major PITA. I've spent about $1500 on my trailer ABS, fixing various issues. Still that ###### light comes on when I hit a bump, or goes off if I hit another bump. I count myself lucky if DOT inspects me after a "good" bump.

 

For me, the actual pre/post trip, to catch things is not a major issue.

If you make it a HABIT of visually inspecting your rig at all times when you're out of the seat.
Always looking as you're walking past.
You'll develop a keen eye for things over the years if you practice this.
I can walk between trailers in a lot and spot a nail in a tire like it's blaze orange and blinking.
Don't procrastinate on the small things, or they'll cost you later.

Sometimes I can catch a whiff of coolant while I'm fueling, or in a dock.
Assume that it's your truck, and check.
Give quick scans to make certain that hoses aren't touching anything and becoming worn.

A constant, flowing check all day long eliminates tedious, drawn out inspections each morning... and makes you confident on the pit.

Everyone does it their way.
Find yours.
But, be consistent with it.

 

Congrats