Off duty question

Yup, I just about caused an inspector to have an aneurysm when I did exactly that; beet-red face, throbbing temple vein, yelling, etc. I just smiled, kept my mouth shut and referred him to my logbook. He was right, I had egregiously violated my logs, but he couldn't prove it without my confession.

 

There was no citation. You either get a citation (court date) CSA pts, a violation on your inspection (no court date, no citation) but CSA pts, or you get a verbal warning. I didn't get into a pissing match. I was trying to explain to the officer how long I've been out here and how I've never been given a violation for this. I don't see anything wrong with having a civil discussion with an officer. I used to be one. I had no problem with it as long as they didn't give me attitude. You can get your point across without being a dick.

 

That's silly. He doesn't need you to verbally confess anything. The proof is right there in your logbook. I don't know what your violation was, but if you're over on hours you're over. What's to confess?

 

You could have saved the bandwidth by just posting that.

 

And you could of saved us all the time by making it clear what they had you on.

 

And what did this civil discussion gain you? From what I see in your words that would be nothing. Then in the process of having a civil discussion you might admit to several more HOS violations the officer might pick up on. We can go around and around all day on this. The best advice is to utilize your right to stay silent and other then a general greeting keep that mouth closed.

I will use this as a place to comment on something a now retired Virginia DOT officer I know told me. He had a (stinky simon) truck stopped over at the scale on US 58 just outside Norfolk. According to him, that driver would not shut up. He said finally just told the driver to stop while he was ahead. However, had this been several hours earlier that stop might have turned ugly. Sometime's a person's largest enemy when dealing with ANY Officer is runningoffatthemouthitus.

 

I was clear; they didn't have (couldn't prove) anything and I didn't get a violation. The specifics of it are not important, the point of the post is as @Moose1958 has repeatedly made; you have the right to remain silent... As a rule, drivers are blabber-mouths.

 

Yes, this is called a gotcha situation and this is where most truckers make a horrible mistake. I have seen many inspection reports with the words driver said or indicated. These people if they are following the rules must establish the case. It becomes difficult for them if you the driver just stay quiet.

 

Arguing is definitely not going to help. Moose1958 is right,clam up(good advice),DOT arguments can't be won on the road. Besides a lot of them eat that $#!+ up.

 

You have your opinion, I have mine. If you want to sit there and keep quiet while they wreck your CSA that's up to you.