Out of service orders

Well, first and foremost it depends on the State you are in. In my State we cite the driver for all violations. Other States you can issue the citation to the company. If in this situation it presents a dangerous mix. About 4 years ago, a carrier from my State did exactly what your situation was. Out in the middle of nowhere a carrier, who was a local/regional carrier that had "shops" in two different States. Well the "shop" that is located in my State had a driver that noticed the brakes were not up to par. He called the powers to be and informed them that the brakes were screwed up. The powers to be told this driver "drive it to our shop at such and such. If not, you will not have a job." So while en route in an adjacent State to have a brake repair this driver had to suddenly stop and could not. He killed three people in the same car that he drove over. He informed the Troopers that investigated the collision of what he had been told by his company. Long story short, driver was charged and convicted of manslaughter ( from what I remember he had to serve 1 to 2 years the rest was suspended time), the carrier had a complaint filed by the investigating agency with FMCSA. I assisted the FMSCA Agent on a terminal visit and inspection. On the day we went to the carrier's "shop" in my State, as we were driving up the lane we met 5 trucks loaded on the way out. The were stopped and ordered back to the "shop". We then conducted 10 other Level 4 inspections (vehicle only) at the "Shop". Out of the 15 combinations only 1 trailer was not placed Out of Service. To say the least the party for that company was over. I was informed by the Agent that the civil penalties were around $50,000 for the company. The company was sold and is no longer in business. In my opinion, I wouldn't drive it. I'm sure most of you on his forum would not drive it, but you can probably name someone that would. Ultimately you are responsible for what you drive. Your CDL is your livelihood. Lose it, you have no job driving trucks. Again, I get at least one driver a day that is suspended. It amazes me that there is that many out here. I know and the guys and gals I work with know that carriers constantly threaten drivers with "drive it or lose your job." There is 2 drivers that call me quite regularly to inspect their trucks. They call when they are grossly overweight (in excess of 10,000 lbs, the most was 24,000 lbs) and when the company will not change tires. Tell me what route they will be driving and see where I am. They will pull over and wait on me. There company pays all of their tickets so it's a win, win for them. They stick it to the company and they get their truck fixed. It's a double edge sword because if the company loses to much money, the driver's lose there job. The only tickets I write them is for overweights because of this. If I didn't write them the overweights the company would be suspicious, because we never write warnings for overweight, unless a few hundred pounds.

 

We're not all bad.

 

You're right, most of the guys and gals I stop are misinformed about one thing or another. As you know and as I hear on the CB everyday, there are a lot of "Truckstop Lawyers." My favorite slogan when I speak with drivers. The most common misperception is "I have 15 minutes (someone Friday night told me 24 hours to catch up there log book) to catch up my log." I would say in my 9 plus years assigned to a commercial vehicle unit that more drivers are misinformed about log book regulations. That being said the majority of the inspections I do are on interstate drivers, usually the carriers have less than 20 trucks. I have stopped, still stop the big companies but the majority of the seroius violations I find are not on the bigger companies. Not picking on owner/operators, but some are good, some are bad. Some should never have even tried to make it as a owner/operator. On the other hand I stop a lot of owner/operators that have some nice rigs, well maintained and up to par. I'm sure many of you on here can look out your windows in the truck stop your in right now ( because I know you would never try to drive and look at this) and see 1 or 2 pieces of junk. When I'm doing random inspections I look at the truck, is it missing the steps? Is the grill knocked out? Is the front fenders held on by bungee cords? We call this a clue. My theory is this and most of the time it's so true. If they man driving doesn't take care of his equipment he isn't taking care of anything else. I look at trailers, look at the wheels and tires, see if the trailer is tracking differently than the truck, which is going to tear the tires up much sooner. Majority of the trucks I stop fit this category. Again I understand rising costs is the cause O/O do not have the funds to put back into the truck to maintain it. Before you bust my b_alls, I have an uncle that drove many years as a O/O, so I know what O/O's go through. When I was a kid I used to ride with him on summer vacations. But I also saw how much he was putting back into the truck. The trucks that on the outside look like they are falling apart are the ones that I have found to have serious equipment defects that meet out of service criteria. One trailer I stopped last week had 10 crossemembers in a row under trailer that were broken. The floor was sagging through, which you could see into the trailer and see the load. I still stop the big companies as well. I know everyone on here busts JB Hunt and Swift but I haven't found that much wrong with them. I can tell they are green when I stop them but the equipment is usually good.