chickenhouse inspection

Our state law reads something to the effect of:
"Operated motor vehicle with improper tires / suspension / wheels / etc, etc.

The person operating it is the driver. Therefore, the only person I can legally ticket is the driver.

In my entire career in the Highway Patrol, I have never ticketed a company. If I did, and the company didn't pay, would I put out a warrant for the company? How would I arrest a company?

Now, the Department of Transportation can go in an audit a company and levee fines against the company. These fines are based on completely different laws. If the company does not cooperate or pay, then they may go in and suspend the authority for that company and shut it down. They also tend to be VERY large fines, as opposed to the small fines individuals receive.

 

Currently in the province of Ontario, the DOT inspectors are expected to maintain a minimum OOS rate of 20% of the truck they inspect. The company I work for has seen then number of questionable OOS violations being levied for many crazy things steadily increasing. Load securement is their new tack, any truck rolling thru Lancaster westbound scales that has their load bars secured to the deck of the tractor with bungie straps, they will inspect the bungies and of no securement weight rating is found on the bungies, they will place OOS for load securement with the accompanying loss of points.
One of our drivers had a headlight fail while SITTING ON THE SCALE deck (he saw it flash and go out in his fender mirror) and was pulled around the back and issued OOS violation even though it had just occurred and that he had a spare in the side compartment and changed it on the spot.
I was put OOS for a loose pitman arm that was solid tight and torqued to proper spec. He said because he could see a tiny amount of "flex" in a mix of oil and highway deicer that was clinging to the edge of the pitman arm at the output shaft mounting. This was after he completed a full inspection of the unit finding nothing and steering was checked once already ( I could feel him pulling hard at the hoses and wiring under the frame), he returned to front of truck and asked me to rock steering again and then reported the pitman arm was loose. An $800 road service call resulted in the mechanic unable able to tighten the bolt any more and just wiping the sludge off. The DOT officer re-inspected and put unit back in service as all good. The mechanic later confided that this particular scale uses this ploy quite often to maintain their OOS quota. A review of the regulations show the that sections as simply "regulation 1361 - Pitman arm - loose". There is no description of what is loose. My pitman arm had no visible slack or movement that was measurable. I'll add that two days previous that I went through a level 1 inspection in Maine and truck had zero defects.
Moral of the story, in some cases you're going to get a violation no matter how well maintained your truck is.

 

this is what csa 2010 brought us, driver and Company both receiving points for all violations found and noted, and made a free for all with D.O.T. it has nothing to do with safety at all. But at the same time i do agree with making the driver also responsible for the equipment they are operating, because it doesn't matter who owns the equipment it matters who is in control, that person is responsible. But i do not agree with D.O.T. giving bogus violations just because they can, that makes them the thief and outlaw.

 

it doesn't make the driver in control. driver can't control the company. company controls the driver. and if driver don't like and company won't fix. driver finds a new job. another driver takes over. and company gives him the same broke down equipment to drive.

 

CSA points are not a big deal for a driver (unless you get hundreds). If you plan on trying to go to work for a mega it may hurt but if you walk into a small to mid sized company and explain why you left your last company, CSA points won't matter. If you left because the equipment they put you in was unsafe, then you made a good move by leaving them.
CSA points won't keep you from getting insured (again, unless you have hundreds). Leave ASAP and you'll be fine.

 

Friend of mine was terminated when they got to 120. Majority of them were warnings and they did not like the first year increase spike.

 

Thats a company policy. No law requires it, some insurance companies may have a requirement. Thats why I said "Leave ASAP". If a guy came to me and said "i work for a company that refuses to repair my truck and I have 100 CSA points" I would not discount him simply because of the CSA points.

 

The problem with CSA is that they triple the points the first year. You might get 20 points, but then it is tripled and is now 60. It does not take many times to get into trouble.

 

Again, just one more reason for small companies to do more investigating than megas. If a guy walks in my office with 100 CSA points and I look at the reasons, maybe he picked up an old trailer for his boss that was in bad shape, he knew it wasn't legal but it was safe, his boss said "do it or take a bus home". He gets stopped and gets 100 CSA points because it had a worn brake shoe, a crack in an air hose, and the marker lights on top didn't work. He was empty so it wasn't a safety issue with stopping, he was only going 50 miles, and he asked his boss to fix it before he rolled with it.
Here is how I see that scenario. This guy is willing to do any (safe) thing for his employer, he did not want to take a risk but realistically it wasn't dangerous to have a brake shoe that was past the ware mark (with an empty trailer), a small crack in a brake hose, and it was daytime when he was running so the lights weren't an issue.
It was one stop, but that day cost him a chance to work for megasupercarrierfleet, good... Now I have a hard working employee who makes good decisions and will bust his tail for me.

This blanket number system that does not account for variables may work for SWIFT but out in the real world O/O's deal with variables everyday that a points system that convicts before hearing your reasons, will never work.

 

if one deems something to be unsafe, or needs fixed or repaired, then the driver has a choice either take a chance or not to take the chance. And if one is terminated because he/she felt the trailer weather empty or loaded wasnt safe then I would say good for them, and go find another place to work. As for driving then taking the hit by being pulled over really shows that one didnt care and therefore would I be more likely to hire this person, nope.

When people start trying to circumvent the system or try to reinvent the wheel, and get into trouble is when more regulations get thrown at us, we all have to admit we have more rules, and regs then we did 13 years ago.

If you need an example, look at how people used and abused log books and now eobrs are still trying to be mandated for everyone.