The Truckers’ Report flatbed Hall of Shame.

Sounds a lot like 2009, or 2013, or 2018. And it's not going to be anymore successful.

"The agency processes well over 150,000 new carrier registrations a year and cannot audit a meaningful share of them"

That one line from your article encompasses the whole issue. Until there are strict restrictions on new authorities and there are enough investigators to audit every new authority within 18 months nothing is going to change. All the "it's a priority" public statements don't mean much when budgets are getting cut. $964 million in 2025, $926 million for 2026, and $946 million requested for 2027. If you take FMCSA's 2017 budget and adjust for inflation it's a little over $1 billion. This is going to be a priority until it's not when it should be a priority until it's fixed.


https://youtube.com/shorts/ERlmOpaO1AU?si=XUB2Jy1Z9_AbFrlD

 

Your picture brings to the point something else I was going to say, which is that IF, that anchor point is rated higher than the individual chains, that it might be a palatable solution, and that anchor point you show is rated for, what? 30k? Each of the chains are what 6-9k? That would work out right then, as far as values go, and although I understand sometimes we're limited, but I would think that pulling in different directions could also be straining on the anchor point from multiple angles. However, since I concede that I can't find anything prohibiting it, I just try to look at it like someone that is trying to make sure it doesn't come undone, using whatever logic and values I can apply to mitigate that possibility.

I'm guessing those are lifting points on the top, not securement points for transport.

 

So, let's hear the story behind this...!

 

TALL load Short overpass. Oh, that's a horrible feeling.

 

happened today — southern transport smacked another bridge up in elkhorn


Sounds like the pole car cleared but the load obviously didn’t — which leads you down a path of elimination pretty quick.

 

Isn't the whole point of a pole car to...oh, I get it. TripleSix was spot on about hiring a competent escort company.

 

You'll see a lot of pole cars, double clamp their pole for that very reason sometimes the vibration they'll move down a little bit.

 

doesn’t matter how tight the pole is if the driver doesn’t verify the height of it before moving


It was smacked into my head pretty early on — set the pole 6” above load height. Check the pole height every time you reasonably can. Stop for a quick piss at a rest area? Check it. Check it after every break. I never once had a lead mad at me for checking.

so the pole cleared — load didn’t.

that tells me a — the pole wasn’t set properly or

b — the pole traveled under the bridge in a different lane than the load. Failed to notify, and the load strikes the bridge. Doubtful in this scenario, I think, but it does happen on some arched bridges.

 

There is definitely a “c”

being a perimeter trailer

they may have raised the basket to get over some obstacle and not returned the trailer to the correct height.

It is difficult to determine exactly what happened- other than the bridge was to too low…