Did a search and I can't find any answers anywhere, so I will give this a try. I have been driving local for about 5 years and have been Regional for the past 7 months. My question is: Has anyone ever been cited for not having a securement check flagged on their log. I haul dry van and I thoroughly check my load before leaving and take a quick peek at almost every stop. The regulations state that a securement check is required at 50 miles or within one hour of the start of your trip and 3 hours or every 150 miles after that unless there are stops in between, which then it is assumed to be checked and not needed to me flagged. Now, I am not sure if this is something my company just requires me to log on my log or if it is required to be logged by the FMCSA. Either way I typically just flag it once I get to my stop whether I stopped or not. It is almost always more of a hazard to stop out there on the open road to check the load than it is to just check at each planned stop. I can see flat bed haulers needing to stop just to check every so often, but not a dry van hauler. Either way, I would just like to hear how some other drivers go about doing this. Thanks drivers
We don't do them because all of our loads are sealed. But we do use straps and load locks on all loads. But breaking the seal to check securment is a big no no.
As a flat-bedder, I do frequent load checks. If a planned/routine stop exceeds the one-hour or three-hour window then I flag a stop (meaning it takes less than a 15-minute increment on the log page), write the location and the time takes (eg., 6 minutes).
Our logs dept claims that drivers have been cited for not showing load checks. I don"t personally know anybody who has... and I have to say that more often than not if I end up running with another driver, few of them place any priority on regular load checks. I do regulation load checks and log them when I do them. To me it just makes sense to be checking your load and vehicle every few hours.
Our loaded trailers are always sealed, even on multi-stop loads. Thus they are exempt: http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/rules-regulations/administration/fmcsr/fmcsrruletext.aspx?reg=392.9 see b(4)
