DOT Inspections?

Old Iron we think alike. I am a full time Police Officer and part time Owner Operator. I too will never cross a scale loaded or empty if at all possable. If you don't go looking for trouble it most likely will not find you. My truck and trailers will pass any legit inspection. I just rather not take time to fool with unneeded delays.

 

You are correct on both points. The problem is there are literally a few hundred items that need to be working properly every day o a truck, so you need to have all of those things working in order for you to have things go your way in an inspection. DOT only needs one thing to be wrong and the inspection goes their way. If they really want to find something they can and they will.

And there are so many regulations that DOT may write you up and really not know the regulation. Ive read numerous articles about this and when it happens the driver may win the court case but good luck getting your CSA score adjusted. They are difficult to fix even when you prove your case in court.

 

I try to avoid scales too. I saw a guy with a brand new truck get 400+ in tickets. I almost got an oos for log book at the 95 MD scale house. The guy was convinced that off duty counted against my 70. Scary thing it went to the fith person in the scale house until someine corrected him. Granted no one spoke up and told him he was wrong. I asked the dot officer to show me the regulation. He pulls out a four inch thick book. After he got tired of trying to it find he goes around the room..... Imcompatnce scares me. It's nothing to them everything to me.

 

I was in a little 40' box truck brand new with class 9 hazmat. In KY once they inspected the truck and then spent 30 min or more looking though that Websters dictionary on steroids reg book looking for something. Finally gave up and let me go. At least they tried to confirm whatever they was thinking was wrong at the time.

 

Seventeen inspections in the past four years. A product of living on I-5 & being leased to a carrier with a crap CSA score. In all that they found two air leaks, one I fixed in the inspection bay.
I keep the inspection forms in my documents binder & show them whenever I get pulled in.

 

the only sure way not to get your pecker bit by a rattlesnake. is not to wave it in front of a rattlesnake

 

This whole CSA thing is complete and udder ########. It's completely and totally unfair. I have a truck that got a level 2 inspection by a non dot officer and he found tons of crap. Driver drives 200 miles and passes a scale and gets another level 2 by an actual dot officer and he finds nothing. I get the truck to the house and guess what? Nothing. I can't find anything wrong with the truck. How do you fight that?

 

/shrugs.

You cant... and I can attest to this.

Got rammed in Indiana coop on I74 for "brake hose chaffing..." in a level 2...me and this officer exchanged words in a polite manner so to speak.. after he handed me the report because he did not tell me a single thing about this alleged brake hose that was chaffed..... I told him, really? this is brand new! it's seperated... what else more do you need? He said "Sorry, too late now. Leave now" WTF?

three days later, Michigan pulled me in for a level 2. Of course, you have 15 days to fix the defects... but the thing is... THERE WAS NO DEFECTS. so Michigan officer goes to the same very alleged brake hose that's chaffed based on the indiana inspection report that popped in his system and said.. "Uhh.. Did you fix this?". I said, "No officer because in all honesty.. theres nothing wrong with it. It's separated and these hoses are nearly two months old". He said, "Ok.. because it looks like it was fixed but I guess not. Not sure how Indiana wrote you up for this but let me go complete this inspection paper.. clean inspection with no violations".

/SHRUGS once again.

 

And Might I add - is it me or does every officer (certain ones, not all but in general) LOVE to write brake hose chaffing violations when they cant seem to find anything?

Indiana, Wisconsin & Iowa love to give those out.

 

Chaffing on any air line should be a violation. Its ones of the easiest things to fix/replace.

Get stuck in the middle of a 70 mph interstate with no air pressure just once. I came across a guy stuck in the middle of I10 near Baton Rogue. Triangles were out,.. plus I added mine. His service line to his trailer chaffed through. Blamed it on his company. I said no,.. YOU are to blame for taking this truck out here knowing your line is like this. I repaired it as fast a I could,.. cut it and used a pressure coupling to screw the ends together. Got him out of there.

In the 10 - 15 mins it took me to fix it,.. my wife is screaming at me from the shoulder to get out of there. She is in a panic as no less than a dozen cars and trucks locking up breaks as they are coming up on us way too fast.

Hurst