Truck Police

Riggs

Riggs

Participating member
Location
Bryn Mawr , Pa.
I don't know about other states , but in Pa. they figured out how to make some more money. They can pull you over for nothing more than to see if your legit. There are so many regulations, from medical cards to blown clearance lights,their mission is to fine you,warn you, and put you out of service . Picking on the working people, on their way to work. I'm legit but just getting pulled over for a hour is a day kill for what ? Inspection stickers every six months mean nothing , they inspect the whole truck while you sit their and lose money . Don' t dare argue because the pen is in their hand . Fight a bogus ticket and you're still losing money. If you get pulled over in a truck , with a trailor of some sort and get no ticket , wipe your @#**^. I mean you got lucky. Those fines are huge too.
 
I got off with a warning the other day for minor D.O.T. infractions................if the commercial vehicle officer would have started writing the ticket would have been close to 2K and all for paper infractions!
 
DOT is big on commercial inspections here!

Random stops, portable scales, the works.

Ive been stopped for quick roadside inspections several times, never been pulled from service.
Here you can be driving a ford astrovan with a logo on it and be considered commercial, thus requiring the whole nine yards; health card, inspection logs,safety equipment, etc.

Tell me that aint some BS!
 
John,

do you know anyone who's gotten inspected for driving a smaller vehicle, say, less than a one ton? That sure seems petty.

When I had my clam truck the yearly DOT inspections started. The first year there was a lot to fix. the second year all that I needed to change were some tires. The tread depth was just at the line. I asked the inspector why I would need to change the tires since I drove so few miles, there was plenty of tread to get me through two years of my driving. He said that the state couldn't know how much driving I might do so they needed to set a tread depth that would make it through a full year. Such is life...

I know a company that got their clam truck red-tagged by the state patrol. There was so much wrong with the truck that they had to park it. The patrol put a bit red label on the driver's windshield that states all repairs needed to be done before the truck was allowed on the highway. The owner went at 3 in the morning with a scraper and drove the truck back to his shop. Very few of the repairs were done and the truck was back on the road, a hazard to everyone. This is one of the reasons that they're so strict.

I got stopped with my one ton cube van pulling my empty tandem trailer. There were some things wrong with the truck/trailer and the inspector was going to red tag me. The shop that did all of the work on my big trucks was located about three blocks from where the inspections were done. He allowed me to drive it to the shop to have the repairs done. There were several other commercial outfits stranded in that parking lot that day.

Too often the inspectors seem to be having bad days. This makes everyone's attitudes go down the drain. Is there any way to make inspections pleasant?

There have been times where I've gotten fix-it tickets. Those are easy to deal with, get the things fixed within a two week period, stop at the cop shop to get checked out and no fines. Not a bad deal.
 
I agree Tom does seem petty, and no I dont no of anyone whos been stopped in less than a one ton. But, I did have the chance to sit and talk face to face with an inspector at a seminar recently and I thoroughly questioned him on many subjects. He informed me what is considered commercial here, and in short, anything for hire with signage is commmercial and subject to commercial laws and requirements.
So when my wife drives my half ton pick up truck with my logo on the door to the grocery store, legally, her and the truck must be up to DOT standards. Health card, fire extinguisher, road triangles, the works!!
Pretty %$@!&% lame huh?
I realize she wouldnt be real likely to get stopped by a CMV or be scrutinized, but now in many cities, state commercial vehicle inspectors are falling by the wayside and local traffic control officers are being trained to do the inspections.
Also did you know that all federal, state, county, city level employees who drive commercial trucks are not required to obtain a DOT health card?

And, have you ever heard of a DWF, driving while fatigued?
They have a retinal test that can be given as easy as a breathalyzer, that supposedly determines your fatigue level.
Its not being used now, but there is talk of it becoming reality in near years.
 
Guys, our yard is less than one mile from the main brush and log recycling center. The CVE (commercial vehicle enforcement) vans LIVE down the street from us.
When I first got my clam truck, it was not a pretty truck, and it got stopped all the %&! time! Close to $3M in tickets first year! And it deserved them!
I started in with the DOT inspections at the big truck places... it's mandatory for ANY commercial vehicles over one ton here. They have standing orders (from us) to repair any and all problems that are "out of service" things, and to call and talk about any other things they find.
I also found a paint shop that works reasonable.
The paint helped more than anything, I think! If a truck looks real good, it's probably not as good a revenue cow as the slop... we've not been stopped in several years in the city, but have been occasionally stopped in the burbs.
This past week my son was stopped in the clam in a small industrial town (have their own CVE). He "yessired", and grinned like a banshee... was just happy as hell to oblige the man. The guy wrote up 8 complaints, and gave him one ticket... $125.!
 
All this just reminded me of a funny story...

I was working a short job once helping to get/keep things sorted out on a large construction site. Near the end of the job we were waiting on a large (neighborhood of one ton in weight) machine drive gearbox. The local business who was to provide it to us, when asked where the hell it was, said it was at their shop about 40 miles away across the state line, and they could have it to us maybe the next day. We had several millwrights twiddling their thumbs in the mean-time, so I hopped in a spotter truck to go fetch it myself. It was an F700 with a short stick on it.

The guy at the local shop asked if I'd take a pallet of stuff with me to the other shop and I said okay.

When I got there, he put the pallet on the back of the truck. I looked around for some tie-down straps and found nothing, so told him to put it in the middle, up tight against the front of the available bed and hit the road.

When I got to their other shop, they swapped pallets and didn't have anything there either which I could borrow to tie it down. Oh well...

So I'm heading home with it, taking the freeway. Not too far into the state line, I was for some reason intently watching a semi slowly pass me, when it suddenly jumped in front of me and decelerated onto an off-ramp. As I went by him I looked over and he had this look on his face like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. I figured I knew why, but then I looked up and saw he was taking the ramp into the open weigh station! I began wondering if I was supposed to pull in or not, but it was a moot point 'cause I sure as hell wasn't about to anyway. Not only did I not have the load secured, but I didn't know whether or not some special license was required for a truck that size, much less even have any drivers license with me!

I intently watched the mirrors for one of the troopers' cars to come chasing me down, but they didn't. I took the next exit a couple of miles up the road and stayed on the back roads the rest of the way home.

I'm so bad... At any rate, it would had to have been about 15 years ago, so I'd think any statute of limitations would have expired by now. If not, then of course I deny having typed this.

:)
 
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