Points on PSP for tail light being out?

As I said anyone can see a light. Today's LED lights are super bright in the day time without brakes applied. It dont take much.

Even the old trucks way back then had certain lights required to work day or night on inspection, it never STOPPED DOT from checking them anyway. All inspections I have ever had involves checking every mandated light on the rig per DOT specs day or night over 30 plus years.

If you are trying to think DOT will somehow overlook or excuse a light that is busted, not happening. Sorry. Any further rewording or questioning based on inspections and lights is futile. DOT is there to enforce. And that is what they do.

 

You wont be able to plead anything down. These points dont go on his license. They go on his PSP which is a driver score card put out by the Fmcsa. The psp is what companies can look at before they hire a driver. Psp is a record of scale inspections and accidents. I got points myself for a burnt out light. Nothing to panic about. By the way, clean inspections can help offset bad ones.

 

Sorry this happened!

We inspect out truck 3 times a shift with the red brake pushed we recheck for air leaks and the lights on with the flashers. Pump the brakes pre and post trip. It takes two people for intertrip to check brake lights.

Had a light out last week. Found during an intertrip between Phoenix and rialto. It was similar situation. We waited for 5 hours near a truck stop for roadside.

The company can only deal with the situations as they present themselves and the wires get bumped by cargo and whatnot so they really can't predict when they will go out.

 

One bad inspection or even two won't hurt. The company will hem and haw about it but secretly they are kinda happy because the driver now has to stay with them about 2 years to age out the violations, in other words there would only be 1 year left on the violation where he would have other companies consider hiring.

When a driver goes from one company to another the points stay with the old company and don't go to the new company. But the new company sees the driver as a high risk for more violations and will say call us back in a couple years.

 

I respectfully disagree.

We do quite a few inspections where there IS no "blemish" or defect - DOT regulation wise.

 

You understand that, in a DOT inspection, we check ALL required lights, even in the daytime. If it works at the time of inspection, fine, if not it gets listed on the inspection report.

What is there to "plead down"? If the light was required and it did not work at the time of inspection it will be listed as a defect on the inspection report.

 

You're not going to see corroded wires most times without taking things apart. Mechanics don't take things apart looking for nothing. Ain't nobody got time for that.

Some wires aren't even viewable.

 

What you talking about, willis? Them days are still rolling.

I've gone through plenty of times with a marker light out. I watched 3 trucks in front of me get told by a california scale to go to the truckstop and fix that light. Every one of them drove right through town and kept on rolling down the highway. I see trucks all the time that should be stopped but never are.

 

I've seen that happen too. Truck ahead of me with a light out here or there, plenty of trucks at night with only one headlight. I'm so glad the CSA crime crackdown finally settled down. We know to get our lights fixed. Just don't expect to hold up a million dollar load over a $3 dollar light that will be fixed in a few hours.