Truckers beware if you are driving through Indiana

The DOT laws are written well enough that they can almost make it up that something isn't within standards. They make it up I'm telling you! Not all the time, but you know your self if you can see half off the brake shoe is wore out and you know you can stop and its working right, you can't tell that to the officer.

Some of the DOT inspections that I have had that was BS.
* Dirty license plate on a trash truck. Ticketed yes.
* One taillight out on a box truck. Put out of service at midnight.
* Shutdown because the toll was on the other side of the highway. Oversize can't travel through a toll. Put out of service for the weekend.

I'm tell ya, they make it up!

 

You know as well as I do its all about revenue.Think how much money they could make if they picked on 4 wheelers like trks.

 

NO they can't sell a federally built highway, they let a company manage the turnpike and still make money.

 

TWICE in the last year I was written up at a d.o.t. inspection. same offense. after getting all my paperwork & checking all my lights, officer: your trailer tag light is out, do you have a replacement bulb? me:yes right here beside my seat in my compartment. officer:can you install it? me:yes. walk to back of trailer pull cap off light take bulb out replace with new, light comes on. officer:good thank you. come back 30 min later with all my paperwork along with citation. I asked what was the purpose of having me replace on the spot if your going to write up anyway? what more can I do to remedy this light out other than what I did? I also noted that I just had a full d.o.t. inspection 1 week prior in the next town with NO violations. that should of told him plus my very clean record of how I keep my equipment in compliance.officer: not matter if there is any violation when I check it gets written up.

the last time was just 2 weeks ago. front marker light out on trailer. replaced on the spot. got written up. both times were between 11:00 am & 1:00 p.m. (daylight) officer: you have any questions? NO but I have a lot of comments! me: what ever happened to courtesy? what about using your own descretion? no reply from officer. when this type of violation would happen in the past the d.o.t. would be very happy to see a o/o prepared to fix violations on the spot, not promising to get it done later. that was years ago. the last few years they are giving no leeway.

 

They get bored and they go check what their buddies are doing.

 

Revenue.

You really think those guys give a flying squirrel about safety? If they did they would've already audited companies like Central Transport.

 

Cranky Yankee : No, the sky is not falling. There are over 3 million CDL drivers in the USA, so the odds are not all of them will get hit with fabricated tickets. Those heavy fines to drivers and companies are referred to as "augering" by corrupt DOT cops; "Wow, we sure augered that driver." or "We sure augered that company." Virginia, Ohio, Tennessee, Missouri used to be the worst and those of us that have spent years on the road know this. Dozens of lawsuits by trucking companies and OOIDA brought it nearly to a stop for awhile, but now it's cranking back up due to revenue shortfall in most all states. There are occasionally former DOT cops that post on here that won't go into details, but do admit a lot goes on that shouldn't be going on. There's nothing noble or honorable about fabricating tickets just to suck up to the boss and extort money for the states use.

 

But there is always a certain few trk drivers that think the DOT is just doing their job by getting all the evil bad truckers off the road when most know its all about making money for their state.Some of the DOT goes to the extreme to find a violation and won't stop till they do.I have drove thru Indiana more times then I can count and never have I seen a weigh station open on the side I traveled on.Guess I just got lucky.I have never seen dot only picking on the trks either that's why this surprises me.Their lieutenant must have had a meeting with the officers assigned to this

 

There you go, just a bunch of thug's and thugettes breaking laws and thinking it's OK to run around with no spare 30 amp fuses. Whats next in your criminal minds - you might as well run around with torn DOT reflective tape so we can get you off the road, and spare the rest of us from your unsafe practices. Your nothing but a bunch of evil :smt096gangsters that need dealt with :smt071................. ..........

 

Been there, done that. Got clean inspection. Some trucks that 'look' safe are not. Only way to find that out is grab trucks at random.

If you feel that a ticket is unfair, you have two choices: Have the officer open up the regulation book and show you his justification for the violation, or smile, sign the inspection report, and file your Data-Q to have the incorrect violation removed. I prefer the latter, as you would expect the officer to start looking harder after being challenged. The Data-Q challenge is in writing and tends to be more objective.

If you had been driving at the speed limit, you wouldn't have shook the car and woke the sleeping bear when you went by.

Here is the regulation regarding spare fuses:

The REQUIRED parts and accessories is key. For example: If the 30 amp fuse was for heated mirrors or bunk climate control, then the violation was incorrect. If it was for windshield wipers / washer, then the violation was correct.

I'm glad that they are giving no leeway. Now when drivers get ready to start a trip, they're thinking about what they got dinged for over the past few months. And they're doing better pre-trip inspections and actually fixing the problems before getting started to avoid another ding.

Sure, those might be minor issues. But look at it this way: If a driver didn't find those fairly obvious but minor faults, are they even looking for the minor faults that could become major safety problems in short order?

As I stated before, they're doing their jobs and I'm glad to see it.

FYI, inspectors can err on both sides of the fence. For example, I got a clean inspection on a tractor / trailer combination that was MISSING the required left and right side rear markers on the trailer. Not burned out, just NOT THERE. They were removed when the trailer was refurbished, but never replaced. I knew they weren't there and should have been, but the inspector never noticed. I didn't say a word.