Lapsed Federal Trailer Inspection

It's 10 miles... Not the end of the world.

 

Omg, take the trailer to the shop for the inspection, you have nothing to worry about.

The cops won’t do a thing about it, I made money taking trailers for inspection when I was with LS and have a couple drivers doing that now.

 

To answer your question, no there's not an exemption to go to the shop. DOT officially would say get it inspected on site.

In practice, pulling it 10 miles the risk of getting pulled over would be so low as I wouldn't even think about not pulling it. Of course it depends on the company. Do they ask ro break the law all the time, or is this happening something rare? My willingness is inversely proportional to how bad the company is. After all, an on site inspection doesn't cost that much more.

 

I actually had a driver get pulled into a pop up scale half a mile from the shop. They let him go to the shop and inspected him when he came back with it a couple hours later. Now, mind you, this is Idaho, your mileage may vary in, say, Minnesota or New York.

 

I’m not arguing with you, but I have been told years ago that it is legal to take an unladen trailer to the shop to get the inspection. Not sure about a mileage limit, but like you said, in this case it’s only 10 miles lol. There are plenty of idiots who unknowingly pull trailers across the country all the time with lapsed inspections.

I was a yard jockey once for a company that used their old retired trailers as storage. Obviously, the inspections on these trailers were months or years out of date. We would occasionally pull those storage trailers down the road (only about half a mile) to our other warehouse to transfer product. And again, we were told that was ok because the trailers were not technically laden, we were just transferring our own merchandise between our own facilities. I thought that sounded a little sketchy but never looked into the legality of it myself.

 

Just one point about this. I know this from painful experience and it is a real problem. IF you encounter a trailer OR a Tractor for that matter with NO valid inspection the hair on the back of your neck should stand up! This means that equipment has NOT been in a shop in a long time. Most carriers will do a yard check and then perform whatever is required. If a trailer has been out for so long the inspection has expired you should take a REAL LONG VERY detailed inspection of that equipment! ANYTHING wrong, this means legal documents or an expired or missing tag! DO NOT put that equipment on the road! NOT EVEN to go across town! Just a missing inspection sounds great on its face! True professionals do not put equipment on the road until said equipment is FULLY legal! This (censored) is NOT the driver's responsibility to get fixed! It is on the carrier's maintenance dept 100%. A mechanic can come out and spend a few minutes placing a sticker on a trailer! I'm sorry, but this is a topic that brings out the old crotchety driver in me!

 

Years ago it might have been, but I'm guessing it's an old wives tale. Just an FYI here is the section, and there are no exemptions in this section. Might be elsewhere, but until someone can point to it I'll go off the default of "It's not legal to move even for short distances"

Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR)
§396.17 Periodic inspection.
(c) A motor carrier must not use a commercial motor vehicle, and an intermodal equipment provider must not tender equipment to a motor carrier for interchange, unless each component identified in appendix G of this subchapter has passed an inspection in accordance with the terms of this section at least once during the preceding 12 months and documentation of such inspection is on the vehicle. The documentation may be:
...
(h) Failure to perform properly the annual inspection required by this section shall cause the motor carrier or intermodal equipment provider to be subject to the penalty provisions of 49 U.S.C. 521(b).

 

Dude take it to the shop and get an inspection. Even if u get pulled in for inspection , unless its a level 1 they are most likely not going to ask u to see paperwork for inspection