Anybody have DOT officer save them from a ticket?

not a DOT but i was headin back to the warehouse after the days work (local driver), headin down the highway in the hammer lane, enjoyin the nice weather, check my mirrors, bear 2 feet off my bumper with the christmas lights on. i pull into the slow lane, start down shifting to pull over, he pulls up next to me making some hand gestures, i wave back give him a big huge smile, then he points to his eyes, then to me, and takes off. wooo what a close day that would of been i had the cruise on at 75, that highway was marked for 60. i've slowed it down since then.

 

A few years ago,I was headed east on US30 in Indiana, when a DOT car pulled behind me, and hit the lights. I pulled over, having no idea what I did, or what she wanted. She walked up to the door, and said " I know the price of fuel has come down in the last few weeks, but you might want to put your fuel cap back on the right tank". I forgot to replace it that morning after fueling, and it was dangling by the chain, and splashing fuel out. Thanked her, and she just smiled as she pulled away.

 

Back before Illinois raised the speed limit to 65. I was coming across I-70 out of St. Louis one night and was about 10 mile from the Indiana line, running about 65mph. When a DOT pulled up along my left side, he turned on his dome light and then flashed his spotlight on my side door for just a second and took off. About 2 miles up the road set two State boys. Of all the states to get a break in, Illinois was the last I expected it in.

 

One foggy Saturday Morning I was driving coal from Elkhart IL to the U of I power plant and we were on 1-74. There was an oversize ahead of us and so traffic was backing up when this voice comes over the radio, "As soon as we get passed this next bridge I'm going to let ya'll go. So get in the hammer lane and put pedal to the metal." Turns out it was a very bored care-bear. There was a lot of banter between smokey and us drivers when one asked, "Since you're talking to us, let me ask you just what you will let us do?"

His reply, "We'll give you seven to eight miles an hour, but you get above that you're going to get our attention. Truth is we're not looking for the guy who stays to the right and flows with traffic. We're looking for the fool in the hammer lane driving like an idiot."

 

Had a load coming out of Laredo once and after getting stopped at the inspection station for about a half hr, continued further north and go pulled by a DOT officer for a short in my trailer lights. The officer allowed me to continue on to the T/A to get it fixed. The officer could've burned me cause if he checked the truck I had 2 logbooks, however I got off with a warning...

 

I was running NJ Turnpike on my return run from Boston area, still being pretty green in this field I had tunnel vision and running in the 2nd lane of the 2 lane section, didn't see the statie behind me until I caught his lights in my fender mirror. Pulled to the shoulder with him in tail, greeted him with a cheery "Good mornin officer, how can I help you?" Said I was speeding and tailgating the van in front "what do you think would happen if he decides to stop quick with you this close?" Nodded and handed over my doc's, he asked if my license was clean "yes" he comes back and says " I'll give you a break, I could get you on the speed, tailgating and disregarding an police vehicle which carries a load of points and $$$. All I got was a friendly suggestion and detaining traffic fine. That was my cherry in this career, hope it's the last.

 

i get d.o.t.eed all tha time at perryville md & baltimore city md.I Never have a problem!as long as ur legal, eveythings in order, ull never have a problem.& be nice. and dont even respond its because ima woman trukdriver either!

 

watch out 4 tha lisa kelly lookalike on njtp.,I95 de & md 6 days a week, niterunner!thats me! I drive staight truks & tractor trailers. men..b nice!

 

First off I find that if your polite honest and look like you know what a shave shower and haircut is you have a good chance of getting a break. I have got a few little breaks here and there. Usually nothing big I tend to run legit but here are 2 of my favorites.

1) I was held up at a shipper in AZ and was planning on dropping my LD in Phoenix at a terminal. My hours where shot to hell and all I wanted to do was get into town for some food, shower and sleep.

I had to log that I left the shipper 4 hours earlier to make it look legal on the books. I set my log accordingly and started off. As soon as I pulled out and made a left on the HWY I was lit up by a local cop. He said when I pulled out a person coming up behind me almost rear ended me. (I was 79.5K sorry I'm slow) I told him I didn't see anyone and apologized explaining how heavy I was. He asked for my DL insurance and logbook. And went back to his car.

When he returned he handed my DL and insurance back. And made a show of thumbing threw my logbook. He made a comment about how I needed to be more careful in his town or next time I would be getting "a closer inspection of your paperwork". Point made.

2) I was training a student. He was to be with me for 28 days. At about 3 weeks in this guy was impressing me with everything but shifting under pressure. If he had to get up to speed in a real hurry he would sometimes miss a shift point and grind some. No real biggie that comes with time.

We where to make a delivery in Clackamas OR to a Safeway DC. He had been there before and felt confident in getting us there. I had ran right up to my 11 and was tired as hell. I told him wake me if he needed me and I laid down for a nap.

He woke me up later saying we where "lost". He's on a US 2 lane HWY. He tells me he took the right exit but when it came time to turn to road the DC was on their was road construction blocking the road completely. So he continued straight looking for a way to double back on a parallel road but couldn't find one so he went straight so all we needed to do was turn around and find a new way in (10 miles back).

There is nowhere to turn around easy. I finally see a narrow turnout and tell him to stop there and swap seats fast. He dose and I pull some quick maneuvers to turn around for him as not to block the road. Once turned around I had no time to swap back because traffic was behind us with no shoulder. I was looking for a place to stop and couldn't find one.

I was stuck behind an ABF truck that was going SLOW so when the road gave me a hammer lane I hit it and was passing him just in time to see he was going slow because he was pulling into an open coop. The DOT man was standing in the window looking at me with both hand in the air like "what the heck are you doing".

I stopped on the end of his ramp and when the scale was clear I backed up into the scale area parked and took everything in (why wait to be asked at this point). He was pissed. I set everything on the counter and before he could take anything I placed my hand on top of the pile and said "I'm gonna be honest with you". I told him everything. Even about my logbook.

He said ok, had me back over his scale (I only had 20K or so on). When I came back in he gave me a stern warning; handed me my things back and said now would be a great time for my student to start driving.

 

I haven't, but my wife did.

Back in about 1997 or so we were running team for Marten. We dropped an MT at their Wilsonville, Or yard and picked up a load of Coke product or something along those lines going to Meridian, Id, had to be there the next morning. They were predicting a storm coming into the Blue Mountains (Cabbage) later that evening so we were in a hurry to hook up and go.

I usually made sure the tandems on the trailer were set right, but in my hurry didn't even think about it. At that time, Oregon had instituted a law that the trailer mud flaps needed to be within so many inches of the trailer tandems, and at that time Marten had all their mud flaps on the very rear of the trailer, so they were doing retrofits on the trailers coming into the yard. When they did the work, they slid the tandems all the way forward.......yup, you can tell where that's going.

Wife took the first leg out of Portland. She hit the EB Cascade Locks scale and sat....sat....sat....finally getting the light to park and bring in her paperwork.

My wife gets very nervous around uniformed types, she was probably shaking like a leaf when she went in ( I had already fallen asleep by the time she hit the scale, only waking when the air brake went off when she parked). The guy told her she was 2000 lbs over on the trailer, if it had been a few less he would have let her go. She told him where we were going and how we were trying to beat the storm in the mountains, and probably her name rank and serial number if truth be told.

When the guy got done writing the ticket he told her "write a letter to the judge, telling him what you told me and say that you didn't pass by any scales to weigh it before you got here."

Of course, little Honest Annie says "but I'm sure I passed at least two."

DOT guy says "yeah, but the judge DOESN'T KNOW THAT"

Anyway, she sends the letter with her fine and about 8 weeks later we get the check back in the mail with a letter stating "this matter is concluded."