I went to a class last night put on by MotorTrucks and the Washington State Patrol. Long story short, I've never heard "Annual Safety Inspections". Apparently they are mandatory and you must keep records. MotorTruck does these inspections for $93 per unit- truck and trailer separate. You can get yourself certified to do the inspections but it is my understanding that "you" become personally liable if there is a problem. Am I the only one that didn't know about these regs? Has anyone got the certification and what does it cover?
You might be, I don't know of any owner that has gotten certification like you said liable.
sounds like an Inspection licence, which I do have in pa. sometimes referred to as vehicle safety Inspector. the cousre runs around $170 and is a 12 hr. course two (4) hour sessions and one (3) hour session of instruction; (1) hour for Tactile One or Two test, (1 1/2) hour for Tactile Three test. AND YES YOU ARE LIABLE
If you are talking about a federal annual inspection, then yes they are required. I got a $50 ticket for not having a current federal annual inspection sticker on my truck. It didn't take me long to realize that I could purchase those stickers at the local truck stop for $3 and put them on myself. I've been doing it this way for over a decade now with no problems.
The outfit I work for started with using our mechanics for inspections . Trouble was , A truck that was little used . The boss's would play the " It never leaves the job " card and want them to overlook stuff . They stood their ground because they had Their names on it . Finally started sending everything out to be inspected . Really works better for us because management hasn't questioned the 3rd party inspections and the mechanics were busy enough with out the extra paperwork .
I've always had trouble with these liable statements made by suppliers. I hadn't heard of yearly inspections for trucks that don't go over state lines. The fact that the class was put on by the people who supply the inspections really puts in doubt anything they might say. I know for a fact that Washington State will notify any owner with a licensed commercial truck of any regulations it will need to comply with. More likely is that Motor Truck is using this as a fish hook to try and sell you parts and service that you may or may not need. The other issue of liability has to do with proof of negligence. A year of operation is a long time. Say you inspect a truck today and six months down the road the truck is involved in an accident. The truck always gets inspected but how is it determined that the inspection done six months prior should have found something that caused the accident. Also as an employee you are not personally liable anyway. Your employer is the entity on the hook, and they are anyway just by the fact that they own the truck. From my point of view, this is more crap government making arbitrary rules they can use to milk more money out of business. It is just another reason to move my business to another state.
Very well said, when I did inspections on trucks 17,000lbs and above I never overlooked anything and if it was a company we dealt with I would send the truck back to them to fix the issues without a sticker of course till the repairs were completed. We have semi annual inspections out here every 6 months
All vehicles here in TX get yearly inspections. We never have had anyone try sell us anything we didn't need. And most just tell you if there is a minor issue that needs to be fix but still pass you.