ELD Mandate....Any O/O's left the business because of it?

Thing is, they are out there everywhere, every day. Sooner or later your number comes up. Encountering an officer like that sure changed my opinion on the topic. You'll never hear me say "it won't happen to me."

I feel strongly both ways. On the one hand I agree. On the other hand, you do realize how many people will fail even an open book test? If it gets someone to raise their hood and check their brakes and tire pressure just one or two times a year, I'd say it's a win.

And the problem with that is there's a lot more victims out there than problem solvers.

You win the internet today! Woohoo! Dishonesty in the trucking service sector? Say it ain't so!

 

I'm still a new O/O but the biggest thing I've learned is it's better to pay now, at home, in either my shop or a shop of my choosing. It's just a fluke that my annual safety is up this month. I'm debating pulling the drive axle brake drums off for a look see, among other things.

The blitz doesn't worry me. I think I maintain my rig and if there is a real issue myself or my mechanic missed then they just doing their job. With that said I still won't cross scales. That at least levels the playing field, somewhat

 

Here's the dirty little secret no one wants to
Talk about. The companies themselves that the
Drivers work for waste more of their time
Then shippers/receivers ever do.
In all different kinds of ways.
Nobody complains about that.

 

Or waisting my time by pulling in to the fuel pump to take a leak and grab a snack while I need to fuel and go.

 

Spaks a clown,but I've had way worse DOT cops.
There's one in PA ,officer Tyler he makes Spak look like Mr Rodgers. He will climb around in your cab,looks for missing fuses in your fuse box,any little "star " in your windshield no matter how small he considers a cracked windshield . He pulled me in 7 am on a Saturday morning and gave me a 2 hour level 1. He started off sitting in his car going over my log book for a half hour and came out with a page of questions (before ELD's). He then asked me if I had any windex. I told him I did and he took my bottle of windex and started spraying ALL my brake lines looking for air leaks. He wrote me for a cracked windshield ( tiny pea sized "star" behind the wiper blade)
3 brakes out of adjustment (That's their "go To" when they want to put you out of service,it's your word against their's,) unsecured fire extinguisher ( in a factory rubber holder, he said it should have an additional strap). 2 "chafed " brake lines ( they barely had rub marks on them ,and I told him they were not rubbed through to the next layer,but I would change them ,still wrote 2 seperate tickets .. He wrote me 8 tickets total ,with fines totally around $1300 ( about ten years ago ,probably more now)

He didn't want to hear a thing ,he was out there to write
Tickets. He wrote a friend of mine 16 individual tickets for 16 valve stem caps missing on his tires. That's what kind of special this guy is.

Here's the story behind this super Trooper. After Sept 11th . There was a lot of homeland security money available to States. This guy was an overtime hound and would put in for any overtime he could get his hands on.
He would be out inspecting trucks Sat,Sun Holiday Weekends. I remember him being out all Memorial Day weekend inspecting trucks. A friend of mine at the time owned a road service company and was a hunting buddy
Of this DOT cop and he would call him and tell him to "keep his phone on,I'll be out all weekend. Which means he will be putting trucks out of service all weekend and suggesting ,that my friend with the road service company
Would be a "good guy to call"
I was friends with some DOT cops who worked with this guy( then ,some have retired) . To a man they all didn't like him because he was a ticket machine and looked like a hero to the higher ups ,and they didn't like to write unnecessary tickets. This DOT cop wrote all those tickets to justify all that overtime paid for by homeland security money that he gouged .They cut that back and it's not as rampant as it was.Last I heard they took him off the highway and put him out in the country somewhere.
Anyway just because you haven't come across DOT cops with "Agendas" don't think they're not out there .
That being said ,I have come across some pretty good DOT cops who I have become friends
with ,and have been given way more breaks by DOT cops than I can count. Most are just out there doing there job and not looking to hang you. It's just those few "special" ones that you'll
remember for a long time.

 

Yes it is, and it was a pile when I bought it. Bought it cheap and kept working on it.

 

What a scum bag. Do you remember Wayne in upstate NY back when the orange jump suits did the inspections? He was a good guy

 

I read in Overdrive that an Elog provider recently discontinued service. Nice

 

Mine is almost a twin

 

No ,I don't remember him. I've had fairly decent experiences with NY DOT cops for the most part. It's just this last year or so I've been running into gung-ho types.
As far as the Orange jump suit guys I've had good ones and really bad. I had one last year DOT me for over an hour and wrote me a bunch of ######## violations,trying to impress the troopers he was working with.it was a big show with DOT,DEP ,local sheriffs department etc. there were so many cops there it looked like a plane had crashed. The trooper didn't even write me any tickets for what the Orange jump suit guy wrote. DEP wrote me a minor ticket for a cracked heat guard that went over the exhaust pipe under the cab. The Orange jump suit guy wrote me a leaking exhaust after he pushed as hard as he could laying under the truck.When the DEP guy came over he looked and said he didn't see an exhaust leak,but he still had to write me a low fine ticket. I said ,you don't have to write me a ticket ,you see there's no exhaust leak. He said since the Orange jump suit inspector wrote the violation he "had" to write the ticket.....total ########.