Marten Driver (currently)

Ok, so this morning Im rolling southbound I-5 at grapevine 0500 and get another red lite on the pre pass. So I pull in and there is a huge cluster of trucks rolling accross the scales with me. as I pull onto the scale I get a red lite and speaker goes off telling me to pull around back and go into bay 2 for inspection. I couldn't beleive it. Im driving a brand new freight shaker and pulling a brand new trailer 18xxx.All these hunk of junk trucks got to keep going. Anyway, first thing inspector wants is to see my logs so he tells me to put the E-log in the 8 day part, and he says ok, now wants to see all the rest of my paper work. So after 30 minutes he says I passed the level 1 inspection (truck,trl,paperwork). I asked him why I got pulled in and he says that I didn't turn headlights off as I was rolling over the scales. When pulling accros scales in cali make sure to turn em off. Anyways, these two inspections I had this week will go down on my csa 2010 as a plus, and a plus for the company. Advice, don't go through any scale with a trl lite out, tire etc, cause with the csa 2010 it's gonna bite ya in the #####.

 

CA has a bad rep with some drivers due to the 55 limit and lane restrictions---both good reasons to hate the place---but at least the DOT's not hell-bent on screwing drivers like they are in some other states. IA comes to mind.

The majority of DOT officers I've encountered are friendly for the most part, even ones who cited me for this or that---but not all. My worst encounter was up in MA four years ago. The guy seemed to think we were both in the Army. First thing he does when he gets up to my cab is shout an order at me to get out of the truck. When I take a moment to put some cold food back in my fridge, he goes ballistic! Then, once I do get out and hand him my CDL and medical card, instead of just handing them back to me, he drops them in the dirt! This guy was a total you-know-what.

 

I bet you wanted to give that ##### hole a piece of your mind. But you gotta stand there and take it. That sucks. I have been inspected about seven times in cali and the dot was always friendly. I forget to mention that at the truckee scales they were having trucker appreciation day and the dot guy offered me a cold soda and a corn dog. How cool is that? The guy was joking with me as well. Even the bear doing the level 1 at the Grapevine scales was a nice guy.

 

Yep that was one of those times when I had to seriously question my career choice. It didn't help that the reason he pulled me over in the first place was some other you-know-what, presumably in a four-wheeler, called in and reported me for God-only-knows what. I have to think it was either because he or she didn't like something I did, and then maybe exaggerated it on purpose just to get me in bigger trouble, or they somehow believed that I was driving recklessly. Whatever it was they said, when the Army sergeant walked up to my cab, he was nearly 100% certain that I had to be either totally drunk, high on drugs, or some combination of the two.

How many other jobs out there are subject to anyone in the general public, lowest common denominators and all, being able to anonymously contact the authorities, and then -- here comes the kicker -- be nearly assured of getting you in trouble for something they and only they decided you did wrong?!? Or worse yet, being able to do it out of thin air, just for a hoot? Definitely takes something away from the career quality of OTR.

That's awesome what you experienced at those CA coops. I'm so glad I live in the West and don't have to drive in the NE anymore!

 

Years ago i got pulled in at Wheeler Ridge for a level one. Started off with the paperwork, when the Officer noticed my Utah CDL ( was living there at the time) So he started asking me how was it living there, and what not, so i told him. I then asked him, are you thinking of moving there? He said yes, he was looking at a DOT job at the UT/AZ port. He was sick and tired of the high cost of CA the taxes, ETC,
So as he finishg the paperwork, he looked at his watch, said, well you passed, no need to look the truck over, i gotta hurry and do 4 more full inspection. Thanks for the info and have a good day driver
So yes some of them can be real nice and some can be dicks.
Treat em as you want to be treated.

 

seems like a good company do they train??

 

no,you need 6 months otr experience.

 

Ya but i wonder how long till we do hire right out of the cdl mills

 

ok cool thanx whats starting pay for only 6 months exp

 

Call a recruiter. It's a sliding scale, and there's per diem. It's kind of hard to nail it all down. It's somewhere in the neighborhood of .33-.35 for the bottom rung of experience...maybe.