Anybody ever volunteered for a DOT inspection?

Discussion in 'Ask An Owner Operator' started by Qbf594, Dec 5, 2020.

  1. AKDoug

    AKDoug Medium Load Member

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    If I request, they will actually come to my yard and make a day of it if I want. If I get my sticker then it's basically a free pass for the year at the scales. The last time I did it, a few years ago, they found a hose they didn't like. Rather than ticket me they said if I fixed it by the time they were done with the other trucks, they'd pass that one too. I probably should get them to do it again this spring as it was pretty handy.

    I also only have a couple inspections on my current record. Despite a hundred trips through the scales a year, they barely have inspected me. Of course, the two times they did pop me we got an OOS for one of them. A chaffed air line that was IMHO not at OOS level. My driver actually had a spare whip in his sleeper and fixed it on the spot. I personally got a driver OOS because I didn't have my glasses with me.. even though I don't need glasses on my CDL, my med card said I did. I will say that those two incidences have made us more careful. We've channeled our inner commercial vehicle inspector and gotten really picky on our in house inspections... and I have a pair of glasses in every truck.

    The inspections drop off after two years.. If I don't get inspected by June I will be back to zero.
     
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  3. Ridgeline

    Ridgeline Road Train Member

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    Not in a million years, it just means you passed on that inspection at that time,

    got a sticker in November of 2007 from Ohio, went to Louisiana and was pulled into the scales in Alabama two days later and inspected, so I asked the nice officer why would I get another inspection if I got a sticker, he was brutally honest, it just means you passed the inspection at that time and a lot of things could happen between then and now. He actually found two things on the truck that needed to be addressed and they were written up.

    I’ve seen this happen many times since with my other trucks, and it is just eye candy to some, meaningless to others.
     
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  4. AKDoug

    AKDoug Medium Load Member

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    Should have said, "at my local scales".. which is where I'm at 90% of the time.
     
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  5. homeskillet

    homeskillet Road Train Member

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    That's how I see it.

    The DOT is not "here to help".....
     
  6. Wasted Thyme

    Wasted Thyme Road Train Member

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    Isn't it like asking for a body cavity search? :rolleyes:
     
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  7. SteveScott

    SteveScott Road Train Member

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    When I first got my authority I asked for a level 3 just to help with my score because I had no score. My equipment was new and have only had a single level 1 since then and passed. It's been over a year since I've had any kind of inspection at a scale house, but I know it will be happening soon. Thinking about going in to ask for one right after I get my annual DOT equipment inspections on the truck and trailer. It's still a crap shoot though.
     
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  8. OldeSkool

    OldeSkool Road Train Member

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    I can’t imagine ASKING for an inspection. Where I come from we alert other drivers of Diesel Bears and avoid them as much as possible. I guess it is 2020 though. Been a strange year...
     
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  9. Numb

    Numb Crusty Curmudgeon

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    I asked for one many yrs ago when running NC to Canada.

    the company being southern and a 2 truck manufacturer, they didn't want to run good rubber and I was tired off being stuck in the snow. I noticed the tread was getting down and pulled onto one of the rest area scales in PA on 79 and asked them to look at my tires. they wrote it up and I had new tires that weekend.

    Granted this was in the early '90s, so no PSA or any of that crap. but I got safe tires and a set of chains, along with a fuel heater, ( lines froze up that week). I was set for real winter driving.

    I don't understand all this paranoia of the scales ,if your sh**s together ,(and it should be), what's the big deal.
     
  10. OldeSkool

    OldeSkool Road Train Member

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    When you own your own truck and pay your own tickets and get wrote up for some crazy deal like a tire being 10 psi below the rest or some tiny air leak you missed, you’ll understand a lot better.
     
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  11. TheLoadOut

    TheLoadOut Road Train Member

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    Because YOU may have your #### together, and rightly proud of it, but when Officer Dingleberry goes out there and starts poking around you can be sure he's going to do his due diligence just to find anything because you came asking for it.

    So when he finishes his inspection and gives you a write up for a chafed airline that doesn't exist or an air leak that only his powerful ears can hear at the scale house on the side of the noisy interstate, how is that going to make you feel? Now you have violations that technically you came looking for, when in reality there is nothing wrong, he just felt like it is his duty to write something, anything up.

    I've never understood the wanting to ask. If they want you, let them come get you.
    download.jpg bedf083047df53f8afa9fa319d273a74.jpg smokey-and-the-bandit-3-6.png
     
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