A ridiculous ticket

writing tickets to generate revenue??? get outta here!

 

DO or DIE, first its the marker lights now thats not enough. Here comes the reflective tape. Driver I feel your pain, but not the ticket. Pay the ticket and charge it to experience. It could've been WORSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

That is crazy.

 

If writing tickets / citations was only about safety then there would not be any fine / money involved, only points on your license.

 

i got a ticket in NY in Peru county during a DOT inspection for not having the tape on the icc bumper, had tape of the trl doors, but got a ticket...and it was a fix-it-ticket at that...
now i do have a question,
are we required to have refectors, weathet its the tape or the reflective tape, on the rear of the sleeper???
and also, about the mubflaps, arent we required to have the reflective tape or reflectors on the mudflaps on the back of the truck for when were bobtailing?

 

You have to have reflective like a upsidedown L on the back of the sleeper if the truck is newer than 1997 or somewere near that year, I know it is required on my 1999.

 

Couple of years back, heading down I-25 in NM, on my way to Alb., just outside Wagon Mound, NMSP sitting in the median. Now, I hadn't seen any traffic in the better part of an hour, so I know he hadn't seen any either. I come cruising by him, 68 in a 75 zone, after I'm about 1/4 mile down I notice in my mirror he's pulled out on the highway. Took him 8 miles to sloooooooooooowly catch up to me, then he rides my tail for the next 3 miles before finally hitting his lights. He checks my paperwork, log book, etc., does a casual walk around. I figure he's gonna cut me loose, no, he get's a tape measure out of his trunk and measures the width of my chassis., then measures the total amount of inches of reflective tape on the back of the chassis (which BTW has 12 working lights), he then writes me a ticket because there is 8" of reflective tape missing off the back of the chassis. I explain to him that this chassis probably has a dozen containers a week loaded or unloaded from it to the ground, not to mention probably backed into another dozen or more docks per week, plus while it's sitting parked at the depot it's probably backed into a few times per week. So of course the tape is going to be worn off, his answer, well then it's your responsibility to make sure all the tape is present before I haul it. Wait, what, I laughed and told him that if I did that I'd be out of a job by the end of the day because I wouldn't have any chassis to pull because everyone of them has the same issue.

No avail, the ticket stands. $55.00 fine, I'm sure there was some speeding antelope, rabbit, or hawk he could have shot instead of hitting me for revenue.

 

Now there is a conversation I'm having currently. We had our CSA meeting last week. In the CSA Maintenance violations, not having reflective tape on the top of mud flaps is a 3 point violation.
So, I wrote up my truck and had the one mud flap fixed. My employer questioned this fix, and called Oregon DOT. DOT says there is not a rule concerning reflectors on mud flaps. I have pointed out all the places and regulations for this, and they still deny it.

Well, I got mine fixed, the rest of the fleet will just have to learn the hard way.

FMCSA 393.11 (footnotes are for pole trailers and converter dollies, they can't place reflective tape where required, thus the foot notes)

Wonder why all truck manufacturers place reflectors on mud flaps of every tractor they make?

 

FMC Reg 393.11 Look at figure 1 (trk/trl Illustation) it will show that you need refelective tape on mud flaps.

 

Yes, I showed that picture also, to no avail!

My boss thinks I need to get a different hobby (quit looking at regulations)

I told Him with this new CSA stuff, it ain't a hobby, it's a disease!