DOT survey

Utah for both.
My first encounter running out of New England I ran into the Utah scale I-15 south. First time OTR so I messed up my logbook pretty good. I also had a loose nut on a brake chamber. The DOT officer was completely professional and actually took the time and explained the 14Hr clock to me. I had never had to worry about it before and he could tell by my hours that it was just a error not a blatant violation & he also let me tighten that loose nut, no OOS, he just wanted me to understand the regulations.

My second encounter same scale, the DOT officer this time was not so nice. 3 violations all petty IMO. 1st violation, I didn't record the material under shipper/material, it was Trex decking, was I supposed to write it twice, according to him, YES. 2nd violation, stopped for my checks (flatbed) & didn't record the first one correctly. The time was recorded because I fueled but I didn't add "check load". 3rd violation, improper load securement, according to him because I didn't record that I had checked it, it was ok for him to assume it wasn't secure. He never checked the load!!

So can you tell me what you would have done in the second encounter?

 

In the past. I would have said Missouri and Ohio were the worst.

But it's evened out since most of the old farts have retired.

I haven't had a bad experience anywhere in years.

But Louisiana is sure pushing it.

 

A lot depends on who you work for. You sign on with a company that has had past problems you will be picked on by that state and surrounding states. I can vouch for that.

Other than that my only complaint is in CA for a violation for no brake lights that were working when I checked afterwards. That 6'8" tobacco chewin' redneck working the I-55 LA scales is a little bit intimidating! Straight from the movies.


Since most of my encounters are in TN and KY, they get my vote for being most professional. TN always jokes and cuts up with me.

 

Louisiana is really getting to be something else for bad. I have had 2 bad encounters there and the one worth mentioning is being pulled over by a state patrol for not wearing my seatbelt when I was. He was sitting on the right shoulder of the road with his back side facing me as I approached at 55 mph and he claims "i must have just put it on" but I had my wife with me (who was wearing hers too) and she tells the guy "he always wears his seatbelt and he has been this whole time".

Wyoming POE its been 50/50 some are nice and others try to spew some BS law they know nothing about. When they tried to look it up in the book to show me as I asked politely to please explain so I can get a better understanding and they are not understanding the laws correctly.

WA state and OR. The experienced ones are usually very cool and a little understanding but tough and they usually know their stuff dead on. The trainees really need some human interaction or something as they have NO SENSE of humor.

 

Since it says Shipping document number OR name of shipper and commodity, then if you had the BOL number on the log page, you were covered.

I checked the Driver's Record of Duty Status in the CFRs, and could not find any reference to a requirement to record a load check in the log. There is a requirement to perform one within the first 50 miles of a trip, and again within another 150 miles or 3 hours, whichever comes first, but no regulation that I can find that requires it to be recorded in the log.

Next time, ask the officer nicely if he could show you where the requirement is written in the book so that you can quote it to the next person that asks. When he can't find it, then he probably won't write you up for it.

 

One place for both the best and worse treatmen. Several years ago I was doing a load on a weekend for my brother. I vacuumed a load off a railcar in Gramercy, LA and was headed to the nearest CAT scale to weigh. I had to cross the LA state scale. I was called in for being 2000 over on the trailer, which was not unusual or for that matter unexpected. An LDOT Lieutenant wrote the cite, which was on one of those brown clipboards with the shiny metal clip, which he flung across the table and hit me reasonably hard in the chest. I signed it gave him the $48.00 and exited. A friend who was with me stated that if it would have been him he would have pulled the LT across the table. I responded that me being in jail and him being a hero at work for getting his ##### whipped on the job helps me exactly how?

The following monday I was back at the college and emailed the head of LDOT, who called me several days later. He asked for a more detailed review of the event and what I wanted from this. I told him I wanted the LT to not do this to anyone else because sooner or later someone would pull him across the table. He said he would check in to it and get back to me.

Several days later he called again and stated that the LT did not recall the event. I responded that likely to the LT there was no event to recall, that this was likely the way he handled his job. The only event he would be likely to recall would be when someone did pull him across the table. He stated that he would get back to me if he found out anything else. I figued this was the end of it.

Several weeks later he called me again and asked if there was a black mann wearing a tee shirt and jeans sitting to my left when in the scalehouse. I said yes there was and he said the man was an off duty Trooper who verified my story. He said they were going to have a hearing on the matter. I asked if I needed to attend and he said no, I have your email and the Trooper. He was to call me back after the hearing. again I figured this was the end of it... but

Several weeks later he called again. He said he hearing was over and he had mailed me a letter explaining the hearing and actions taken, but he wanted to call and explain to me in person. He said the LT got 30 days off, and I said whoah, wait a minurte I did not want to cause his family any monetary distress and he politely told me that this was up to them, not me. He then said he also was to be reduced in rank...and I again stated this was not my desire and again was told this was not up to me. He then stated he had to complete some type of in service training before he could return to work.

Three thoughts were immediate to me. 1) Likely they did not do all this to the LT for one event. There were probably other events and compalints. 2)I could not have whipped his ##### as bad as his agency did, and 3) In this case and hopely most others, there are ways to handle a problem to a satisfactory resolution.

Best regards

 

You are much kinder than I am. This officer started out by assaulting you with his clip board. He had no regard for YOUR family, or whatever "monetary distress" you may be subjected to after having to pay the fine when he wrote the citation. This officer similarly was not concerned with whether or not you were secure in your job, or if this incident may have caused YOU to be fired....so why should I care about him? If anything, I would have been expressing my disappointment that they were allowing the officer to keep his job after assaulting me with his clip board the way he did...

 

Everyone has a bad day, some handle it better than others, but that would be no reason for me displaying poor judgement and bad manners.

For all I knew at the time his wife may have ran off with a truck driver that mornng.