Stopped by the DOT man 2 blocks from the yard.

In my entire career, I've been pulled over for an inspection once, and that was in lllinois. The officer spent literally over an hour going through my truck, but he was courteous the entire time. I was a rookie and asked him if he could show me what he was inspecting and how. He agreed, and that's why it took so long.

In the end, the only thing he found was a malfunctioning automatic slack adjuster. This is something I would check during my pre-trip, but had failed to spot. He said no big deal, just get it fixed at the next truck stop (which I did).

I know brakes are a big deal, and if I'd had a bad attitude, I'm sure he could've written me a ticket or even put me OOS for that one slack adjuster. As it was, I learned something new and the slack adjuster got fixed half an hour later at a nearby truck stop. No ticket.

It's true what they say. Attitude is everything.

 

I agree a professional and postive attiude will get one out of more tickets than a negative one. I could've gotten nailed for going 13 over in Or. coming down one of the little hills. Officer asked why i was going so fast and I said Brain Fart Syndrome. Did a Lvl 2 and a warning,also had all my ducks in a row. He also asked if I knew he was there and I told no because I had the radio off. He asked why and I told him because of all the garbage thats is on it. I have gotten out of a few tickets both POV and CMV by not giving the Officer a bad tude. Had a NM DOT sort of compliment me on having a reasonably clean cab.

 

A good attiude and a smile goes a long way. I got pulled around at the old Strafford MO scale. It was late on a sunday night. I go in with a smile and a cheerful look on my face. He wants my CDL and all my paperwork etc. Now he says go pull bac around and put the trailer on the scale and come back in.
I do all that and he says I'm no fun as he can't find anything on my CDL. I tell him with a grin thats the way I like it.
Now about the almost 36000 on the trailer. No I can't slide it as my paper load had slid up enough to put me over. We talk for a little while. Nice guy the dot scale man. I say how about letting me go out the back way and I'll run the back roads ti Illinois. It is legal on roads other than interstates with 36000 or less on a tandem. He thinks for a bit and says thats a good idea. As I'm pulling out to go out the back gate he comes on the load speaker and says don't tell anyone about this we have a reputation to keep up. I wave and smile. Life was good.

 

Trucker? EX-2 Years

Well; 2 years doesn't give them a long time to check you out....

 

Gotta tell this about DOT inspections In the early 80's I pulled a flatbed hauling cowhides, steel etc. I loaded in Friona TX and headed east. Got stopped at the old scale in Strafford MO. Beautiful Saturday AM. Couldn't ask for a better day. Young guy come out of the scale with his creeper, etc and is gonna do an inspection. Cowhides are nasty!!! Anyway, he tells me to apply the brakes when he blows his whistle etc. I do and a great big glob of fat from those hides drops right in his chest. He shot out from under that trailer like out of a cannon!! The scale super was laughing and then told him you can inspect this carrier going west but never crawl under that trailer if they are EB. Few weeks later I went across the scale again and the lite never went RED! DOT officiers are just doing their job. Like other jobs you have good ones and you have BAD ones. I guess in 30 years I ran into maybe 2 or 3 that had an attitude. Attitude and clear paperwork will do wonders!

 

New Years Eve, 2007 other half was coming back to Vegas and they had a HUGE inspection going on. DOT, DEA, Homeland Security, FBI the whole bit, and they were pulling everyone over and doing Level 1, 37 point inspections, plus.. plus..plus.

Highlander had no probelms with giving them all the paperwork, had no problems with inspections or anyone, until Homeland Security asked if they could put a dog in his cab. He said sure. The agent and the dog went into the cab, and asked HIghlander to also get in the cab. The dog sniffed around and began to hit on Highlanders refrigerator. The agent asked Highlander to open up the fridge while his other hand slowly went for his sidearm. The dog went into the fridge, pulled out a bowl that had tin foil on it, nosed off the foil, and sunk his teeth into ham that was in the bowl and chowed it down.

Highlander began laughing his butt off and the agent was going.. no.. no.. bad dog.. bad dog. The dog then moved over to where the heat was coming out of the vent from the APU, licked his chops, and then laid down. Highlander began to rub the dogs belly, the dog rolled over, and closed his eyes and was about to fall asleep. The agent again apologized to Highlander, saying the dog had just been feed, and was a new dog and took the dog out of the cab.

The moral of the story? Always carry ham in your refrigerator to "pay off" the dogs.

 

Now, that there is funny! I don't care who you are. That's funny!