DOT now checking Qualcomm?

I think this is one of the biggest generational differences between truckers from when I started and now. I don't consider myself an old timer at 35, but I did start a few years before the widespread use of cell phones, qualcomm and the internet in trucking.

We simply couldn't be tracked everywhere we went. Drivers used CBs, 'fat pencils and skinny pencils' on logs and delivery receipts didn't show date/time stamps. The DOT just couldn't pinpoint us like they can now.

I think this is what you are hearing between the drivers that say they run 100% legal and those who say that they won't. For better or worse, when I got my CDL, I learned from the old timers that you could get around most of the regs, if you were smart. I don't know when things changed. After 9/11? After the new HOS rules went into effect?

If you are an owner operator for a small company who doesn't really care about the regs, then you can still run a little like the 'old days.' If you are a company driver or O/O for a company with more than a handful of trucks, you have to run 100% legal. That's just how it is.

Also, I would never admit to running illegally on this or any other internet forum. This site has very good disclaimers about the fact that you can have some annonymity here, but smart people (namely lawyers) can always find out who you are!

 

If someone wants to find where you were, it's not that hard. Every city has traffic cams now with time and date. Most businesses, including truck stops, have survelance cams.

A person and their truck are probably video taped 100 times a day and never know. If you pay for fuel with cash, a receipt is still made, and the survelance camera will catch you paying for it.

How many scales now have cameras? Most probably. Go to NM or Az and you will be recorded most of the time. My truck was x-rayed twice last week.

Go to the web, pull up any major cities traffic cams, and watch the trucks go by.

You will be found if someone looks hard enough.

 

That's "progress".

 

Big brother has been watching us for a long time so don`t think it just started.But if your not doing anything wrong,why worry?Just like you get near a scale house and all of a sudden,10 different voices cry out what`s the scale doing?If your doing your job the way a professional should be doing it,then what`s to worry??:smt025

 

hm ok
They wont ever go that far unless you kill someone ,well maybe not even then a buddy of mine had a lady run out in front of him on her feet to killl her self and they didnt look at anything.
They looked over log and it looked good that was far as they went.Far as scales go keep being "long as yourdoing your job they wont mess with you"
Takes one pissed off dot guy to find something and your either going to pay a big fine or be shutdown for 10 hours.

 

I don't give em ANY rope. No QCom, no prepass, and I pay my own tolls.

 

This is one of the things that has happened to trucking. Driver A whom we will call ( joe lazy ) is irresponsible and doesn't know his/her limitations and is an Idiot, and not content. Then there is driver B whom we will call ( joe hard worker ) who knows his/her limitations and is responsible and is not an idiot.

( joe lazy ) see ( joe h worker ) getting good miles, and good pay, so ( joe lazy ) gets upset and can't figure out how ( joe h worker ) is doing it, so
( joe lazy ) being uncontent pushes past his/her limits and gets into an accident. ( joe lazy ) says its not my fault its the governments fault because if government only had laws for how long I could run I wouldn't have gotten into this accident. therefore the government steps in to protect idiot ( joe lazy ) from hurting himself/herself again by placing a law that restricts the hours you can drive and the hours you are to sleep. Which shafts all drivers, but ( joe h worker ) figures out a way around the new law, and is back to making good money again. Now ( joe lazy ) can't figure out how and gets mad and tries to push his/her limits again and again ends up in an accident. So ( joe lazy ) tries to pass the blame again and again the government steps in and more laws are passed restricting drivers. Until you have what we have now, everyone gets the shaft even
( joe h worker ). But now ( joe lazies ) are upset because they have no more outs or anyone left to blame, but they are getting the shaft. Why, because ( joe lazy ) was irresponsible, not content, and wasn't smart enough to know his/her limitations.

Hence the fact why we have a bunch of ever changing FMC laws, and QC's, and cameras in our trucks, and maybe soon to be black boxes.

 

This is another reason why trucking has went down hill.
This is one of many accidents I know of. A truck driver was running down the interstate and maintaining control of his equipment, when a women coming in the opposite direction lost control of her vehicle and crossed the median and slammed into the truck driver and was killed. Her family couldn't except the fact that she was the one that lost control, she was the one that crossed the median, she was the one that slammed into the truck. So the family got a lawyer and went after the driver and the company. The lawyer wanted his past logs, ect, ect and went to court saying she wouldn't have died if truck driver wasn't there.

Truth: she was the one that lost control, she was the one that crossed the median, she was the one that slammed into the truck.
Truth: Truck driver had his equipment under control and in the proper lane going in the proper direction down the interstate.
Truth: She was a fault, point blank. The truck drivers logs past or present has no place here because truck driver had his truck under control, so truck driver is not at fault, point blank.

Truth: Her family was irresponsible and not content and could not except the fact that she was to blame, so her family tried to pass the blame, so the government and the bleeding hearts passed more laws to restrict ALL truck driver even though the women that wrecked and lost control of her vehicle was at fault.

Again America wake up and learn some self responsibility.

 

I just thought I would let you know that when you cross the scales, they are now keying in the license plates on the truck and therefore it knows the time you cross.

It is another issue they are after.

If you pay your tolls, and they stop you after the toll is paid, they have been known to request the log book and the toll receipt.

 

There is still easy ways around this just got to think outside the box
All i ad is i drive within my limits and i know what they are if i am tired i sleep