DOT and the State Boys have gone Mad!!!!!!!

Sounds like Georgia is finially doing there job. Where I come from you butt better be on the highway aggressively patrolling. I love stopping three...four....five and more at a crack and hearing the cb light up. Hell me and my partner one night ran down a convoy of 20 and had them on the shoulder chatting. For all of you conspiracy theorist out there I have not and would not increase inspections for the sole purpose of revenue. I know all you truck stop lawyers think otherwise, and you can never tell a trucker anything, because they already know it all. Our State has not told us to increase anything. I am always out and about, all hours of the day, hawking POS's. When I find them, I don't need to hear this excuse or that excuse. You have a job and I have a job. If you did yours... I wouldn't have mine. I would be back on the road handling calls. Most of you on this forum will never meet me because you take care of your business. The ones I meet and greet, you all see in the truck stops and on the road. You know the type, the three color wonders, a hood that's red, and partially ripped off fender that is green and a door that white. The mailbox letters on the old FLD Freightshaker with the grill knocked out. You know the 6 or 8 bald tires that Little E could use at the Talladega race coming up. This describes 90 percent of the trucks I do. And yes I usually catch them with there pants around there ankles. And like PS Anderson spoke of in an earlier post, go see some of the stuff we see. The heads decapitated, the family of four on vacation under a big truck, or my latest. a 7 year old boy squeezed between the front seat and the back seat. His father killed as well. Mom survived. All because a jack ##### driver decided it was a good time to eat fried chicken and drive. He drops a piece on the floor and hit's a full size SUV in the rear that was stopped at a red light. His comment "I'm not sure what happended. I'm sorry." That's nice. These are the people that give driver's bad names. and like my signature page says my job is "highway trash removal" and that is what i am doing. So I don't really care when you say you're trying. Tell that to the kid that's dead. Tell that crap to someone else's that wants to hear your B.S. because I'm not listening. You either take care of your business, or your business is now my business. You see that's how it was when I was just a regular road Trooper. We had our problem areas. We would go up and take care of business until the local dirtballs understood that they had a new set of rules to play by. Doing what you want to do is over, has been over and will not be back again. There are rules and regualtions in place for a reason. Usually some dipsh^t has done something and a lawmaker had a friend or the lawmaker was affected by it. Hence a new law was made. You on this forum know what is allowed and what is not allowed. Just like when your raising your children. Your kids know right from wrong. You discipline them when they are wrong and you praise them when they are right. Basically the same principal here. When I do an inspection and there is nothing wrong I praise the driver. If it's a level I, you get your most sought after CVSA decal for your windshield. But when you should be parked in a junk yard you get your discipline.

 

You must work in PA or Gary, IN with the descriptions of some of them trucks...LOL

 

Nope try again.

 

As for cars being inspected, I used to live in Va. and the constant inspection stickers were a pain, but looking back, I think we were used to it and it DID make you keep everything working down to the last running light. My beef was getting ticketed because I'd forget to get inspected before it expired, and the big month number and color of the sticker was an immediate bust.
People get used to being legal, but will raise heck when things change to it. There are some valid complaints in this thread on truck inspections and situations. But you have to admit, we are safer without drivers running maypops and loose gear, drunks and druggies, or whatever.
HOS, however, I disagree with on the way it's setup. All drivers have different capabilities.

 

No, he doesn't. It's an East coast state and very close to the confederates that lost really but continue to think they didn't.

 

I'd hazard a guess that its MD, and the trucks he's referencing are NJ or PA container/waste/steel haulers going to or from the ports in Baltimore. The truck descriptions certainly fit the neighborhood.

 

The problem appears to be that there are too many, but not all, one-sided people in the world. If you can't afford it, park it. That's not a gray area, it's just a fact. Where I grew up the local police had a ride-along program. The program didn't hold back. There were chases, and fatal accidents and the ride-alongs saw it all. One judge required most traffic convictions to spend time as a participant. Perhaps that would be something to see again. Let some of these gray area believers lose sleep for a week when they had to look at what we did, or do. Let them zip up the body bag and smell that smell that no matter how much you shower, it doesn't go away. Let them pick up the pieces of the drunken American Indian outside Albuquerque on the long hill that walked in front of the truck that we had to pick up the pieces scattered for about 1 1/2 miles down that hill West of town.

But then again, money is the root of all evil. I must eat 4-meals a day so I can't afford to replace that bald tire, renew an annual inspection for the cost of a decent meal at a good restaurant or the designer jeans because K-Mart clothes won't do, or pay the civil penalty.

 

Lady, it is in black and white and there is no gray to it. It's legal name is Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations. All professional drivers and motor carriers are required by law to know, understand, and comply with that black and white! If you wish to minimize the effect of that black and white then I truly believe I feel sorry for you. But the fact remains that this gray attitude indicates someone is not doing their job and that ain't (improper English intended) just whistling Dixie.

But maybe you should walk a mile in Dieselbear, or my shoes before you attempt to minimize the problem. It wasn't our problem Ma'am, it was the drivers problem that we had to clean up after because the supposed professionals failed to do their job. And believe it or not all you must do is your job, no more and no less. Then we would have been out of a job. But as you can easily see we are still in business because the so-called professionals didn't do theirs. Like Dieselbear, I don't care about your gray area. I would much rather have been laid off for lack of business. But I also believe that with your gray area attitude/mentality that will never happen to the people that haven't retired.

It is also about laziness. When one can't take the time to ensure the annual inspection wasn't expired, to ensure the brakes are working, to ensure the tail lights are clean and working, to ensure the lug nuts are all there & tight so the wheel doesn't come off, to perform a proper pre-trip and check all that is supposed to be checked instead of doing it from behind the steering wheel, to repair all the things the cop found that are not out of service defects but are also required to be repaired pursuant to 396.11(c), to ensure the placards are properly placed and remain on the transport vehicle, to ensure when you stop you do so far enough behind the car in front of you so you can see them over the hood of the truck. When you violate the hours of service, when your record of duty status is not current and you can't figure out why cops like Dieselbear write tickets/civil penalties, who then failed to do their job?

Failure to do ones' job is commonplace in the industry anymore, and has been for quite a long time. But failure to do ones' job causes widows to cry themselves to sleep at night. Who will be the next widow that cops like Dieselbear, and as I was before I retired, come knocking on the door in the middle of the night to tell the lady they are a widow because their husband didn't do his job?

It's all about attitude and the adjustment thereof.

 

Now this article is truly well said!