Got a ticket today

And one I wish more of these guys would learn! All the outlaw running I've done over the years, and I've never been OOS. I've got 2 guys (who are now elsewhere) who got nailed at Salix last summer over their 14 because "I thought I still had an hour!"

So you went that way, knowing they often throw that scale open late in the evening, without knowing you were okay on hours?!?!? Dipchitts!

 

In all my years of Outlaw Running I have almost 4 million safe miles with no tickets or accidents and never just as hammer got put out of service. Its bad enough if you have a CDL to get points on a license but I will never agree with CSA or PSP or ELOGS what so ever. You have good drivers out there getting these idiot points put on them for stupid stuff such as clearance lights and so forth. To many points as we all know means your career in trucking can go down faster than the titanic. And this was suppose to be a good way to weed out the bad..

 

Can a ticket of this nature be contested?

 

I am not going to quote anybody in an old thread. However there is a huge amount of pure 100% USDA Grade A BS in here. @eburnett24 if you get a ticket along with an inspection those csa points are there for 3 years. There is an appeal process, but it's very difficult to do. To the state charge If you have already paid the fine I doubt there is much you can do to get this removed, but this is a state by state process.

 

I remember those.

Does anyone still fill out those #### things?

It's going to be a traffic control disobey ticket. Pay it and get on with your life.

If you are a company dweeb, let the boss know and move on with the next load.

 

FMCSA regulations REQUIRE this information be done every year and added to a drivers qualification file. This regulation is §391.27 Record of violations. My point is simple. If that person quoted in post #55 is still an active driver and makes such a statement its been a long time since I filled one out. I will call BS. This is not an option. IT IS THE RULE. If these certifications are not in the DQF a carrier can get into serious trouble during a compliance audit!

edited, oh by the way. This applies to ALL FMCSA regulated trucking operations. Local or OTR!

 

Thank you Moose. That's one of the dangers from being away too long. I get shaky on small details.

 

I agree you are 100% correct. However I know of many companies that could give a rats *** about regulations. Chances of getting caught are small as long as your inspections are good and no accidents. I am amazed at a friend of mine who is told "they" don't need to run logs of any kind due to the nature of their business. I won't mention who or what because it is a name that I guaranteed everyone will know. I do know from decades of experience these guys will only get pulled over in an inspection station so the cops can see the cargo and maybe get their photo taken with it. They look the other way because it is such a high profile thing. Drivers scramble to try to haul this freight and do it for pitiful wages, 1099 of course no benefits of any kind, just that they get to drive nice trucks with "special" cargo and often run in a group hammer down left lane rules be ###### get the hell out of our way we're coming through. Of course plenty of crap companies out there running all kinds of illegal but I was pretty astounded when I learned these people have a "no logs required" mentality.

While this document may be required by regulations, why would that matter to the same people that thing speed limits don't matter and HOS doesn't matter, I mean there are laws about those that are no more or less requirements than that document. Trucking to most appears nothing more than how many regulations./laws you can get away with breaking.

 

Well if a carrier takes that kind of attitude and does not keep those driver files up to date as prescribed by the FMCSA they risk a large fine. This is not something trivial. Samples of these driver files are looked at during a FMCSA compliance audit. Trust me on this. I know safety critters that tell me they get weak knees when those inspectors start looking into those files. Another thing they do is pull the carrier's copy's of the drivers logs, today I guess they pull the elogs. They have a list of drivers from their records and match these logs to inspections. I am not at liberty to identify the carrier but they got a large fine because logs were not matching. YOU are only required to maintain your week. The carrier is for longer. I think a carrier is required to keep logs for 6 months. Most keep them for around a year. Almost all carriers have the inspectors find things.

I can't help what "outlaw" carriers do.

 

And those audits and inspections have put many a carrier out of business thankfully. I don't know any carriers that keep logs more than six months, the minimum required. If you have them for a year they are all still subject to inspection and since (paper) logs were the bread and butter violations of DOT for decades keeping any more than required was just asking for trouble.

There are still small outfits and 1 truck authority holders with a "you ain't gonna tell me what I can do in my truck(s)" attitude. One of the purposes of the metrics generated by CSA date was to identify carriers that merit intervention via audits and not needlessly waste time on those doing a good job. The date is terribly incomplete though since every truck from every carrier does not get inspected on a regular basis. It is the biggest flaw in their methodology. So again I say the chance of getting an audit are pretty small as long as CSA scores are good. It is a risk these people are more than willing to take.