DOT survey

every time i get inspected in nevada, the guys are super friendly and fair. i hate the fat,dike, hags at the kingman AZ scale on 93!

 

For me Id probably have to say the worst is Missouri. They've never cut me slack when they could of. But, to be fair ive earned most of the butt whoopings Ive got from them. I dont ever enter Missouri on I-70 anymore with out having my logbook up to date.

The thought of Cali DOT just scares the crap out of me. Not because they have it out for me, but because they are mindless drones with ticket books that aren't allowed to think for themselves.

Florida. I watched a trooper spend half of his shift sitting in a travel plaza harassing truckers about idling. I dont know that he actually wrote any tickets, but it was over 80F and about 99% humidity. Lots of miserable truckers trying to get their legal rest period that night. To add insult to injury, he had his car running the whole time with the windows up and im sure the AC blasting. That just wasn't necessary.

Colorado can put a hurt on ya in a hurry. But, I actually dont mind WY and MT scales. They are usually friendly and Ive actually hung around just to chat once or twice with them. A welcomed change

New Mexico is always weird. You generally have to guess as to what their procedure is for the day. Watch the lights, or watch for the lady in the booth. Who the hell knows...

LoL at the Raccoon DOT. Never heard them called that before. I like it.
Wa. has a some scales like that, hidden in the rest stops, and you gotta guess if they're gonna be open or not.

First time I ever went from Coure d' Alene into Spokane Wa. I missed the dang scale in Spokane. Just blew right by it, thought it was closed. That DOT dude came flying out of there. Could have sworn I heard smokey n bandit music playing as he came to get me. They cut me no slack that day...

 

Never had much trouble anywhere I didn't bring on myself

 

Thats some funny stuff right there. Those spokane boys have no slack for anybody. I had a load of cardboard bales once and the newbie smokey was gonna write me up for oversized load for a piece of cardboard that was bending back and forth sticking out a couple of inches. I cut it off, problem solved but dang man!

New Mexico is weird, must be all them alien cornhole probes

WY is usually pretty easy but on occasion I have found a couple of persnickety ones like I was hauling a 4500 lb case tractor with the triangle exposed to the rear but was all the way up front on my trailer. The lady told me to remove it, cover it up or I will have to follow the speedlimit for a slow moving vehicle.

 

I dont get dot'd that much, but i would have to say the maryland scale on i -95 nb coming out of baltimore, back in 1997. I was with MS carriers at the time, and admittedly not in a good mood thanks to the idiot dispatchers at that company. I had a load of tv sets on the trailer weighing about 15k lbs, and was directed to head into the scales after paying my toll. I was then pulled across the platform scale. Once stopped, the sign directed me to the inspection barn, where a female trooper(looked a lot like a certain ms. Ferro, who runs fmcsa and she's from MD? Hmmm.)who politely asked for my log book, med card, and cdl, and the other trooper guided me over the pit, and he performed a rather quick level 2 inspection, so far no problems, until ms. Trooper looked at my cdl where it said "corrective lenses". Mind you, i had them on the whole time i was behind the wheel, and took them off when jumped out of the cab so i could open the trailer door at the other trooper's request. The female trooper proceeded to jump down my throat, asking" why arent you wearing your glasses? Your cdl says you are supposed to be wearing them!" I explained, keeping as calm as i can despite my temper starting to slip, that i only use them for driving, and i am not risking them being dropped and broken while i am out side of the truck. This continued until the other trooper, who was now seated the table set up in the garage bay looking at my logs and crunching numbers with a calculator, told her to knock it off, and very politely had me sit down and go over the report. Fortunately i received no violations, but the female still proceeded to lecture me about "getting nervous and jerky" when asked a question. I just quietly climbed up into the truck with my papers, and left, though i was fighting the tempttion to tell her where to shove her badge. To this day, i think mary land is one of the most anti- truck states in the country along with maine, RI, and massachusetts.

 

By god almighty,


New Buffalo, MI .. St Claire, MO .. Iowa & Peoria, IL scales are one of the most #$&@#(@ scales in the United States.

 

I will probably catch some "slack" over this, but the DOT & Troopers in Virginia are the most professional in the nation. No harassment, strictly business, your are treated with respect and you will never find a DOT inspection going on in a rest area. Va. will let you get your weight right, if possible. Now, if you are in the wrong, weight wise or in any traffic violation you are going to get a ticket. Mind you, there are always some "bad apples" in a barrel.

Also, most of the scales in Va. are easy to "dodge".

 

So far for us LA has been the worst. It's like they're always in a pissed off mood. Talk you down like you was a little kid.
There's a female DOT in the Orlando area that is completely clueless of what she's doing, she gave a ticket last year for $1250 that every single one DOT officer I've asked about it have told me no way in hell they would give to a driver.

 

I had VA give me a level 1 two years ago, I had a marker light out and he walked back to show it to me and told me not a big deal.....it was back to working when I walked back....NC has been pretty good to me......minus my very 1st time being DOT'd back in 2000.....the trooper called me a ###### a few times.....because my pants were baggy........

 

I've dealt with the DOT in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado and Arizona. Can't say any of them were negative