Annual roadcheck blitz

I do full thorough post trips, that take anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes. Pre trips take very little time. Lug nuts and pitman arms won't come loose on a truck that hasn't moved overnight. The only thing thing that could be wrong is a bulb blow or possibly a low leak in a tire i didn't catch the night before. A quick walk around to check the lights and thump the tires and peak under the truck for any drip marks. Log back off duty and fire the truck up and have a coffee while the truck builds air and warms up to proper operating temperature.

that was my point. There is no law stipulating a time limit. On every single thread on ttr some guy takes his company requirements and quotes it as law. It's quite obvious most guys have never read the regs for themselves. The green bible states a driver must do a post trip inspection and fill out a dvir of anything is found defective. For pre trips all it says is the driver must be satisfied the truck and trailer is in safe operating condition.

 

I'm disappointed nobody suggested:

"When you see the flashing lights, cut through the median do a 180 and call out on the CB, 'YOU CAN'T CATCH ME COPPERS!!!'"

I got really lucky last year. I was going to "call in sick" but I ended up in Wisconsin with another guy from my company on a very well paying 2 truck load. So he was 12 hours ahead of me and would call me as to where they were open and where they weren't. Also, since my company doesn't micro-manage trip routing and I had WAY too much time to make the delivery (I think it was 900-1200 miles in 36+ hours) I was jumping along secondary highways to take a more direct route. (IIRC, I was avoiding St. Louis and Memphis. I was coming from Milwaukee going to Texas somewhere)

But more than anything, I like to run in the dark. Usually I'm screwed by appointment times and waiting for a place to open. When I run local it's not a problem because I usually run from PA to NYC, I'm at the dock by 7am. But when I'm OTR and I'm not on familiar routes, I don't want to put down 600 miles and then find a full lot. So leaving a place at 5-7pm (thanks for the 8 hour load time, jerks!) and running until 9am gets me more than enough parking.

Well it turns out many civil servants like banker's hours. You might see a scale open at 3am and they'll pull you in if your lights don't work, but you're much less likely to get the rubber glove to the rectum inspection.

What's more likely is I'll be minding my own business, going down the road, perfectly legal and one of my fabulous co-workers will do something stupid and I'll get another "idiot memo" in my paycheck.