DoubleYellow's Covenant Thrival Guide

Things with Covenant are going great - getting good miles & starting to see more preassigned loads. And it helps that I havent had so much as a blown light bulb in a few weeks... The international stuff is still taking shape so I'm in a holding pattern there, but as long as I'm kept moving I'm happy.

I did get my first ticket in 10+ years yesterday -- really ticked me off. I had a load going from Joliet, IL to Searcy, AR and during my 2 hour wait to be loaded I pulled out my atlas & decided to eschew the navigo's route (300 miles of 500 were on rural highways where the speed limit often drops to 45 & 35). My route was 15 miles longer, but had only 150 miles of rural highway. My Rand McNally 2012 atlas showed it all being STAA, but apparently village of Manhattan, IL decided to enact a 65' overall length limit on their 1.5-mile stretch of US 52.

As soon as I pull past their village, 2 brand new optioned-out Tahoos zip behind me & light up their cherries. I've got at least $1,000,000 worth of flatscreen TVs in the back and I'm starting to think maybe I've got an armed VinDiesel crawling on my catwalk or something. But as soon as I find solid ground to pull off & stop, Barney Fife #1 hops out already with a measuring wheel in hand and starts measuring my overall length (78'6"). They dont bother with an inspection, insurance, bols - nothing but my license so they can write up a "local ordinance" ticket that they assure me will not go on my record - even csa. I then see how the ticket was printed an a pre-addressed envelope for my convenience & I start thinking how most of these rural farming communities are struggling just to pay the bills in this economy yet somehow Manhattan, Illinios, population 7098, can afford two brand new police SUVs...

Its only a $75 ticket, but it felt so crooked I was left stewing & seething in anger for the remaining 10 hour drive. And as soon as they finished with me, they whipped around and pulled over a Swift truck next. I looked online and apparently they've been doing this all year:

(link apparently removed by site staff -- google "manhattan il 65" to find it)

That thread also had a link to the list of STAA highways and apparently us-52 in Illinois is truly not on the list so my $50 atlas let me down. I've heard of people getting in trouble relying of GPS, but this.is the first.I've heard of an atlas screwing a driver. I asked one officer if there was a sign I somehow missed (I was 95% certain I hadnt missed a sign since I was crawling along at 20 past their school & 35 in town), but she said that there are none. Erg makes me mad now just thinking about it -- such a scam theyve got knowing no one is going to take the time off to travel here and fight it... They say Illinois is the most corrupt state, I didnt expect that to be true in the small towns too...

 

I have until 9/5 to decide whether to pay or fight, but I don't really want to take the week off work that I would need to request in order to ensure I actually make the court date. I know California allows trials by written declaration, but I don't know about Illinois... I did call the Illinois DOT to try and figure out if US-52 is truly a truck route in IL, but after being passed around 5 different departments, the closest I came to the truth was leaving an unanswered voicemail with "the guy who knows for sure."

I wouldn't be as mad if I got a ticket for something like 58 in 55 because despite being a petty ticket, at least in that situation I am doing a risk/cost-benefit tradeoff and conciously breaking the law. But this...

 

Left another unanswered message today. As for CSA, I dont think it'll affect my score, but I'm not certain. The only "local ordinance" violations that were listed in my csa guide with point multipliers had to do with hazmat violations. Plus there was no inspection whatsoever (never even asked for med card). But it would be nice to have 3rd party verification...

On a positive note, I'm still running pretty well & I'm happy to be up north where I dont have to idle. Ryan was getting on me for 1 really bad week (high idle), but there wasnt much I could do: 9pm - 1am pickup appointments meant sleeping during the day & being in AR, GA, & TN meant idling to get any sort of good rest...

 

Finally had a call returned & as far as the IL DOT is concerned that road is a class 1 highway with no overall length limit (as long as 53' trailer with < 42' kingpin -- I was in the 1 hole or ~38' so shouldnt have had a problem). It looks like the website has some maps, but they are not formatted properly for a mobile phone...

 

Apparently the dot website map does not classify that stretch of highway as anything, though some sections are class 2 -- at least according to my father who was able to get the map to display on his desktop pc... So now I have 4 different sources telling me 2 things: Rand McNally and IL DOT agent Kyle A. say it is legal for my truck, the Village of Manhattan & the IL DOT website interactive map say it isn't.

I'm 90% sure it wont affect me csa, & since a lawyer will cost more than the $75 fine I'll chicken out and just pay. I just hate to think of all the other truckers getting blindsided with the same fine...


Speaking of fines, Covenant fined me $20 for over-idle time today too, I guess the target was 33% last week and I was 38. Since I was on the warning list the last 6 weeks that I've been solo -- no more warnings... So I'm now off Ryan's team board & officially on the international solo board. I should be crossing into Canada on my first international run tomorrow am. Excited & a bit nervous -- time to study all that paperwork the customs folks gave me...