I saw a truck pulling a grain trailer parked geting a tire repaired that was very unsafe today and i am thinking about calling the Dot. The driver-owner lost a hub and tires one time and killed one person and hurt several others. The trailer has cracks in its rear frame and no working brakes. I didnt look at the truck. I talked to the tire guys and they will not touch it agin. I dont know this guy but after killing some one i figured he no longer was trucking.
I would say that you don't have a choice. If the trailer is that bad, then it will kill or seriously hurt someone soon - maybe even one of your loved ones. We're not talking a bald tyre or a couple of blown globes, that's a death trap. After killing someone, you would think that the driver would have learned. Some you just cannot help.
Call them. The DOT are on the road for a reason. They need to be taking unsafe trucks off the road instead of making busy work by running relatively safe trucks thru the mill generating revenue
I for one believe that if a person has served his punishment for a crime he should be given a chance. However if that person is back to his own tricks and is on the path to another accident, I agree that he should be given a look over. If his rig is that out of compliance with cracked frame, etc. it would be suprisind if it has a current DOT. I would be compelled to report him.
No different than calling police if you see someone driving erratically, possibly driving drunk. Make the call, I would.
Just make sure you don't live in a glass house
I'll bet the DOT already knows it,especially with his record.I see law enforcement looking the other way in many instances which I can't account for,I imagine that he is on the list and DOT is busy with the "bad" guys and saving him for "slow"days if they ever have one.Ron G
My short answer is NO . Not going to call Police / DOT for something like that . Only time I might call them would be if I am witnessing some sort of crime , reckless driving event , or accident . I do understand and feel your frustration , sounds like this guy has issues past and present . He needs a good mechanic & welder. Any idea what the trailer brake problem was ?
My newest truck and trailer is 20years older than his. I got stoped this summer and they gave me a real going over the only thing they found was they said one chain on my load could be tighter. I bet the Dot was surprised after looking at my junk it may look bad but it is safe. As far as what was wrong with the brakes the shoes were past gone and it didnt need air to move.
OK , Sounds like it's ready for new brake shoes . Did it have the piggy back spring brake type chambers or the old single pancake ?
I hear you...it's partially "everyone should be swabbed with the same brush" feeling, after your d.o.t. inspection, but more important is the "this guy needs taken off the road as someone innocent is gonna get killed" feeling.
Presented with that kind of evidence, I would be making a citizens arrest and sitting on the roadside until attended by the boys in blue. The law cannot police a community if the community will not police itself. They are simply outnumbered. If this sort of behaviour is to be allowed and ignored, then all of the other rules are open to interpretation aren't they? "Most" people will occasionally go over the speed limit due to inattention or knowing there is a 5 mph tolerance, the lunatic fringe will drive around with knackered brakes and cracked frames. Please protect us from the lunatic fringe when you can. If it is a question of lack of finance on his part, when you get to that stage in a business it is time to confess to failure and get a job that doesn't threaten peoples lives needlessly.
Ok .... A Police officer is going to go forward at his or her own discretion depending on how they see the situation . They put there eyes & ears on it and make a decision like anyone else would . That all being said ........ Lets say a customer drives up to my shop for a DOT inspection . I crawl over & under the truck & say you got a broken spring on the right rear axil and a wheel seal leaking on the left side . Customer pays me for the inspection and asks me when I can work him in for repairs . I tell him next week . Ok ....... should I call the Police and report my customer for driving a truck that wont pass a DOT inspection ?
Totally different situation, your customer in this scenario is obviously doing his best to keep his equipment in compliance.
Yeah lantraxco .. That's where the water gets a little dark so to speak . Truck driver / customer doing his best still wont cut it on a road side DOT inspection . Brand new truck won't pass if the inspector don't like it for whatever reason ? It is what it is .....
Fair point and I do see where you are coming from. If I could offer a couple of examples that I know of personally, I realise that laws and attitudes vary between our two countries. The first example relates to how a business, part of a national chain in fact, specialising in light vehicle suspensions would handle a similar situation. Their policy is that if a vehicle is found with a serious suspension/brake flaw, that vehicle does not leave until the fault is rectified as they feel that their duty of care would be unfulfilled and they would potentially be open to litigation if an accident were to result. If you push the issue or decide not to rectify the fault, the vehicle will be delivered to your home or another address on a tilt tray truck and your invoice will have written a clear description of the issues and an instruction that the vehicle is unroadworthy and not to be driven etc. The customer must sign this invoice to acknowledge the statement prior to the vehicle being unloaded. What the customer does from that point is their call. The second example relates to a heavy vehicle mechanical workshop who, if faced with a similar situation will not sign off on the vehicle safety check they perform on every vehicle that enters their workshop and you will be informed that the vehicle is unsafe to operate until such time as repairs are made. Once again the operator of the vehicle must sign off on the document to show acknowledgement of the caution. Increasingly we are seeing the whole chain being investigated in the event of a heavy vehicle accident, including management and mechanics. There was a case recently where an entire fleet of trucks and trailers - 100+ units, were put off the road due to an accident with one of their trucks. Preliminary investigations found that maintenance was a foreign concept to this company and nearly every unit had a serious defect of some type as well as the correct documentation not being kept in order to satisfy the national mass accreditation scheme they worked under. Several drivers were charged, (primarily log book offences), along with maintenance supervisors and several directors of the company. Potentially, their sins could cost them their personal assets and even lead to time on the wrong side of the bars. Heavy vehicles and their operators tend to be judged very harshly by the public and while fault among professional drivers is rare, when it does occur however, the hounds bay for blood. Once upon a time, management were largely insulated from prosecution, as the law placed the onus on the driver. Obviously, that was a flawed state of affairs as the driver needed a job and could easily be forced to drive a vehicle with known defects in order to keep his job. Thankfully now, there is an increase in the culpability of management and a recognition of their responsibility to provide safe equipment and maintain a safe workplace as regards hours worked and rest times. The days of turning a blind eye, not that I am accusing you of that, have well and truly gone.
Not sure that kind of attitude has reached the US or if it ever will, but agree very much with that. Not exactly DOT related but the following fits with the general topic of turning a blind eye to a problem. Management, especially at the top levels, seem to like to hide behind fancy "mission statements" saying how safety and environmentally concerned the company is, but when push comes to shove production can become the most important objective. Like spillage on a catwalk, won't let people work overtime on a Saturday to fix hole in chute causing the spillage. But if MSHA safety guy sites the company for unsafe catwalk they go around beating their chest telling workers they need to keep the catwalks clean. Most of the time it would take less labor to fix the problem than to keep cleaning up the mess. But can't fix leak while plant is running and can't work overtime except if plant is producing. Years back with previous management problems like this would be noted during the work week and come Friday a list of repairs would be made up. About 1/2 the crew would be told to report Saturday to address the problems. Maybe not 100% of them would be corrected but come Monday 7:00AM plant would start up with fewer problems than the week before.
So if a truck driver sees gravel on the catwalk should he call MSHA ?
And you know as well as I do Ken, that's total and utter BS. It's put out simply to keep the company PC in our current litigous world. But when push comes to shove every company is looking for the lowest production cost/ton or whatever unit they use to measure their production. Everything else is secondary to that, and any company executive who says otherwise is lying through his teeth ..... IMHO.
Lantraxco's post is what a reasonable man would do. Assuming only a helper leaf on the spring, not the main leaf and the oil seal is weeping, not totally destroyed so it doesn't hold any oil. Often it takes a couple of days to source the parts for a repair or as TD25c said, the shop is busy and that is the first available date to repair it. Now if it was a broken main leaf or an oil seal which is totally gone and the bearing is running dry I would think that would be something that is unsafe to drive, with a potential for a serious accident. Either way, DOT (or MTO here) notwithstanding, if there is an accident and the investigation finds these defects, the owner is going to be in trouble and perhaps liable in a lawsuit. Of course the owner will tell the story of how he had his truck inspected and had scheduled repairs next week, which isn't going to cut it. When the shop is found to have discovered the defects and not immediately repaired them, the shop also becomes liable. Huge gray area here, but could result in a huge liability problem.
Well where I worked it was felt that the metric they used to determine "productivity" was tons per man/hour. That was the only explanation anyone could come up with to explain why so many times an outside contractor would be hired at an hourly rate several times that our people would be getting even at 1 1/2 OT rate to do a job that our people had done several times in the past. If our people did a job hours worked would show on a spread sheet. If contractor did a job no hours would show just total cost of repair. One glaring example is a bearing replacement on a screen. Brought in the outside contractor to do the job while our people were on layoff. They did the job with more people than we would have but we had to supply the crane and operator anyhow. Bosses bragged about how fast the work was done. Then when the first samples were taken and mill man had to use a piece of welding rod to open drain hole he was told that's just normal break in on a new spherical roller bearing! Contractor was called out a few times due to oil leaking. Each time it would be leaking just as bad the next day or bolts would be coming loose. Finally our people talked the boss into letting us work on it. Disassembled and cleaned everything spotless, scrape off gobs of silicone and old gasket that was under the silicone. Reassembled with new seals and gasket. Samples after that came back good and last I heard not a sign of a leak or loose bolt. Did anyone from upper management come out and say "Great Work Boys!"? Guess you all know the answer to that!
CEO's and top executives do not get pay raises, stock bonuses and other perks because they just kept the company doing the same old thing. They need to change how the business is run and show how they reduced cost or increased production and profits. Sometimes they distort the facts to make themselves look good. Case in point was the CEO at Nortel, one of Canada's most successful corporations. After declaring huge profit and sales increases he collected his huge salary and bonuses, shortly after that the company was bankrupt and out of business.
Would be nice to think this would teach someone why this is a bad way to run a business. The problem is the people that could change the system are the ones who are profiting from the scheme.
Yeah Karl , It ends up similar the way I handle an inspection only I don't go to the extreme of impounding the customers truck . Customer drops truck off for inspection . I list repairs on the bill ticket the truck needs before it will pass the inspection . If he wants to leave the truck at the shop until I have time to do the repairs that's fine . If he wants to use the truck until I have time to do the repairs that's fine as well . He's a big boy and has been given an invoice with needed repairs listed on it before it can pass the inspection . He might even take the truck back home and do the repairs himself , that's cool as well . When he brings it back to my shop and all checks out I would then pass it . Pretty simple . My job is to make the repairs or see that they are done so the truck can pass the inspection . What the driver/owner decides to do with the truck is his affair . Not mine .
Ask your self this Question? If this guy kills someone else with the issues. How are you going to feel, knowing you may have been able to stop it? Also one more question? Is your mother? Daughter? Wife? Son? Or dad on the road with this guy? I know for sure of people that called TDOT on people. And got there junk off the road and fixed. But one truck a few people had seen how bad the truck was. But did not call, it was one of there family members that paid the price. Now they blame there self's for it. Sad.
Yeah petek , Not my place to try to force anyone's hand on something like that . I generally just give my opinion & advice and let it go at that . Oh yeah , About my Wife , Parents & kids .............. The best thing you can do is train them in defensive driving techniques . That's allot more practical than calling the cops every time you see something . For the most part the Police show up after it has all went down anyway . They can't be everywhere all at the same time . Keep safe following distance . If some Massey Ferguson is riding your rear bumper simply pull over at the next wide spot in the road and let them around . Although don't be surprised if you see them wrapped around a tree in the upcoming curve . Use a blocker car when moving over size equipment to keep idiots from hurting themselves . I could go on and on ..............
I have saw this guy 2 or 3 times this month he was not driveing the truck. Every time i look at him i cant help but think you got some one killed and others hurt because you were a idiot now you have a good chance of history repeating its self. I have also learned that he did drive for a liveing.
I went and looked at a nice 379 Peterbilt today. Guy told me it was road ready. Pass front spring cracked and ready to drop the front end. Every brake shoe on the tractor is down to rivits. One back drum has a section busted out of it. He may be brothers to the one your talking about. I would not have driven it home if he told me I could have just it, drive it home the way it is. But his dumb driver has put 3600 miles on it this week.:beatsme Unreal what people try to run on the roads these days.
I got to ask petek .......... What did you do next ? Call the Police after the truck did not check out . Or just simply walk away from it. Ask yourself the question mate ?????:beatsme ;
His truck is going to get inspected Monday. Will I feel bad for this? No his driver even told me He did not like to drive this truck in the shape it was in. I got caught up in a deal like this back in the 1980's. Company told me the truck was good to go. I told them it had issues with the steering. Pulled into the Knoxville Tn scales and walked it. They asked what I needed? Being I did not get pull around by them. Told them I need you to inspect the truck. All 5 of the guys looked at me like I'm crazy. Told them the front end was not right and the company would not find or fix it. 3 minutes into the inspection, guy told me Thanks for doing this. Truck should not be on the road as the ball joints were bad. I told him I know it but the company told me they would make it 50,000 more miles easy. 8 hours later the truck was fixed and I went on to NY. Would most drivers do this? No but I was not going to take a chance on killing anyone like that. So yes I did ask myself that ? Pete
About 8 years ago or so in WI a concrete truck jumped into gear while washing out and took off. It ran over one of our cement finishers killing him before hitting a building. Brakes on the truck were not working properly and it was found later that there was numerous driver reports written up about it and it had been redflagged by the mechanic, but was pressed into service by someone unknown to me because they were busy. OSHA brought in a crane and set the truck on a flatbed to haul off for examination. It is still in the courts and there still is a widow and 2 kids that are without a father. This was a conscience decision by some one to send a truck out that was bad enough to be red flagged. Of course this is totally different than a truck that fails inspection. When the inspection lists the corrective items needed it is the truck owners responsibility to insure its fixed before use, not the DOT certified mechanic.
its the few bad ones that give ALL of us a bad rap, and extra high insurance , fact is WE are held to a higher standard than a 4 wheeler , wheres my insurance discount , don't' drink, don't smoke " funny stuff" and and medically vetted every two years ,, Wheres my discount ??????? ......... think about it ...........
Thank you.
I agree everyone screams about how bad truck drivers are. But let them run 3500 miles per week and see how good there record is after a week!!! If it was not for 4wheelers causing 99% of the big truck wrecks. Just think how clean truck records would be? Had one last night almost run me off the road. Picked my truck up from the shop, they had finished up the head gasket on the cummins. Coming home guy was texting and I had moved to the shoulder and was on the brakes. He still almost got me, guess I should have nailed him and let the fool buy me a new truck. But paper work, and does not matter if its fault or not. These days its on your record..
Many drivers from Ct and nearby will remember Avon Mt. from 2005 http://www.countytimes.com/articles/2013/06/11/news/doc51b1e592adff8218884921.txt an unsafe truck, 4 died, 30 injured. I'd hate to have that on my conscience if I knew a truck was unsafe & didn't report it to DMV or whoever.
One of my employers had to load his trucks back many years ago and of course I was the loader operator.His drivers were just scared to death of him showing up at the pit and I might be loading another truck instead of one of his.I guess he wanted them to jump in line ahead of anyone else to be next to get loaded.Ron G
Sounds like where I worked. If our company's paving branch was doing work in the area served by our black-top plant the local small contractors would be told they could not buy black-top those days as they did not want company trucks to have to wait to get loaded.
Years ago I worked with a bloke who complained to the boss about the worn out brakes on the truck and trailer unit he was driving. One hellva argument ensued and the parting words from the driver were " I only hope it's your wife and kids in the car in front when I need to stop". That truck went straight unto the workshop and required new drums and shoes all round. Maybe if more drivers were as ballsie as that bloke there wouldn't be as many defetive trucks on the roads.
This jogged my memory a bit and I now recall the same thing happened in the company I worked for or at least very similar.We were a redimix provider and we decided to enter the construction end of the game to have more control over the distribution of our product.Now that I think back on it it was one of our form trucks that got away somehow and it was not our employee that caused it to run wild but the end result was one of our crewleaders got killed as a result and as usual,one of the nicest guys you would ever want to meet.RIP Ivan Martin.Ron G
glass house DOT picks on truckers for no windshield washer fluid maybe they should do there job where it counts
Hello new to the site. I can say I have never turned anyone in to DOT. But I have told customers to take it some where else I won't sign off on the inspection. The equipment they were driving was that bad. I can't sign off on an inspection with the fear of being named in a liability suite. It pissed them off, but I don't need the work that bad. The company I work for or the owner and his son, know not to test the water with my fellow worker or I when it comes to safety with there fleet. 46 tractors and 78 ref trailers. Plus having been an O-O I can not send a truck out knowing it's not 100% safe. The drivers depend on us 24hrs a day. I once had an employer ask me to tell a potential buyer of a truck he had for sale that it was in excellent shape. I had never even looked at that vehicle. My reply was ** you want me to lie for you, then you better let me know when it's ok to lie to you** He never asked that of me again.
I was at the tire shop and they were fixing a tire on a trailer the worker told the driver he had a broken/misseing wheel stud i looked that way and saw its bearing cap dust cover was also gone. He ask how hard it would be to replace wheel stud. I was in a bad mood and smarted off when his wheel bearings failed he could replace it he said he had been lubing it and it was ok. I said yea it will be ok when it failed and hurts some one. I was geting hot so i shut up.Its like the wild west any thing gos.
Was a time I would not sign off a DOT inspection for a Boss's friend, He swore it should pass but I found it wouldn't. Boss threatened to fire me where I said fine and clocked out went home. Moron signed it off himself where the truck made it three miles and got pulled over by a Brownshirt MO DOT. Found all but one of the faults I would not sign off, boss got the lesson AND fine, stated he never wanted to go thru that again and apologized paid me the entire day I walked out. His Buddy threatened to sue him for setting him up as well me for turning him in, MO DOT agent shut him up as that particular 'Trap' had been a random event. His equipment got the third degree from then on and he lost his business eventually.
I've been down that road with the inspection deal. I've only dropped a dime on somebody once. It was so damn unsafe and illegal I didn't feel like I had a choice. Knowing the local DOT man well, not gonna say why , it wasn't hard to do. Contemplated calling in on my ex and her company many times
I will admit I turned a a**hole in to our local police, whom called DOT and the guy got nailed 20 miles up the road when he went by the scale. He pulled in to our local Cenex station when I was filling up my tanks and proceeded to put dyed off-road fuel in his Mercedes diesel sedan. Assuming he did not know that was the off-road pump I mentioned it to him. He said fu*k this stupid a** state and there f*king tax. They never check cars anyway and then proceeded on a whine that was real sour. He filled and drove off. He pis*ed me off.
One I don't normally talk about that happened some years back. It was a Friday around 1:00 pm the owner of the construction company wanted me to run and pick up a paddle wheel scraper 80 miles away. Wa.St. Dot cut off time for moving over sized loads on Friday is 3:00 pm. I said I can't do that and make it in time plus there is no permits, no tabs, no tonnage and several would be out of service violations on the tractor and lowboy, he said do it anyway no one will catch you. On my way out of town I stopped at a tavern and used their phone and called the Wash. St. Patrol. I told them the problem and said you will stop me before I cross the Columbia River, the reply was {most certainly we will}. After every thing was said and done I dropped $2,500 worth of tickets on the owners desk made out in his name Truck Shop
I thought yearly truck inspections were a thing in MO? I might take the long way round every once in a while. Not because i know i would fail an inspection, but I know they pay for those fancy truck inspection buildings somehow.
It dosent matter inspections dont pay much so they dont spend alot of time. Trailers are a big problem also most places that have trucks have their own guy.Their is a big shortage of highway partrols in Mo. Their is a guy here that backed over and killed a young boy a short time after that i saw him hauling a skidsteer with out chaining it down what are people thinking? I dont think you could find a car trailer with working lights and brakes.
Brown Shirts have been setting up spot checks all around the area I live, they have no qualms doing inspections even short handed as it is just time to them. Have seen tickets issued for pickups without load tied down as well equipment loaded into dump trucks and no tie downs or bad tarps on loaded trucks. Not expensive but volume will get you a wasted day in kangaroo court.
DMiller i think it was Herman were me and my boss almost ended in jail. He was driveing and we went over a hump bridge i think and on the other side was the police station it was in a fork in the road we needed to stay right but he was in the middle of the road and when we went over and saw the building it was to late he ended up going down the side walk for a ways . The 3 axle KW pulling a 3 axle trailer made alot of noise. Right at the froni of the building was a stop light and it was red. I was on the look out for some one to come out and see what was going on but the light went green and no one came out.
Could have been but the old fire station/city hall/police office has not been in use until of late since 1964. That split in Hwy 19 has caught quite a few off guard. Now there are stop signs at the end of the Mo River Bridge and the flashing light mid-town. Cops tend to be seen seldom as they run pretty much low manpower due to city size.
I haven't dropped a dime on anyone, but had plenty of opportunity roaming around the country. Unbelievable what you see. Once heading home with a load a post holes a rig passed me just before the Spokane POE hauling a good sized loader, even visually when he passed everything was wrong- little dog chains for securement & not enough, signs, flags....so I figured cool, roll in behind him and be on my way when he gets the red. Wrong, he just rolls over green all the way and I get a red light & Lvl2! I ask the CVEO what's up with that he says "you've got a nice looking rig and I need to do an easy inspection before my shift is over & it's your lucky day". Jerk. Last time I ever went through that scale.
I went off on a guy early today . We had heavy fog this morning he was pulling a 30 foot gooseneck behind a tractor so no taillights also the trailer had 5' tall 3' wide solid ramps. He stop at the gas station i was at i couldnt keep my mouth shut.
Are those days I just want to bitch slap the idiots dragging a trailer NO lights, crap falling off as they Would not take time to scoot it off the machine OR the trailer, and the tires you can almost see the air in. Just want to yell at them: For PETE"S sake people you make a living with this garbage, you need to take care of it and it WILL take care of you instead of costing repairs costs for others or spending time defining your stupidity to the DOT or just sitting awaiting a road call and NOT making money.
Or Killing somebody. My wife hit an unlit trailer being pulled at night by an unlit farm tractor, didn't kill her, but put her out of work over a month, medical bills, and we had to buy another car. He had no insurance, and our insurance excluded farm tractors.
When hauling equipment it's the drivers responsibility to clean the deck of rocks, dirt, sand or what ever. I see rigs running around with track powered vehicles and the under carriage is full of mud and dirt.. It's the drivers job to clean the under carriage. Truck Shop
From Mitch: My wife hit an unlit trailer being pulled at night by an unlit farm tractor, didn't kill her, but put her out of work over a month, medical bills, and we had to buy another car. He had no insurance, and our insurance excluded farm tractors. Another point of note, my 1976 Allis 180 has fully functional lighting JUST FOR THAT REASON!! I also have it insured with the farm and home to keep out of that kind of issue.
Face it guy's the world is full of lazy people that have no self respect or respect for other people. I'm one of those that has to check that I locked the shop door twice when I leave, double check drain plugs and other things I have touched or someone else has worked on. If I was a DOT cop I would have to wear a bullet proof vest. Driving is a privilege not a right as most people on the road believe. And for those of us trying to do things above board there seems twice as many who don't give a **** and will flip you off at the drop of a hat. Working in the towing business years ago I saw more than my share of fatalities and have helped the local coroner put three in body bags. And every one of those incidents were caused by speed, not paying attention, following to close, insecure loads and defective equipment-in that order of most common. The worst fatality I was involved with on a tow was in 1988 on I-90. A women drove over a piece of 1 1/4 pipe about four feet long. It went through the bottom of the car, through the bottom of the drivers seat and impaled her. This happened at 12:30 a.m. The WSP thought the pipe fell off a scrap hauler because prices were up and they were finding debree on the highways for the last month and scrap haulers have a tendency of moving at night. One of the saddest things I have seen in my life. Secure your loads at what ever cost. Truck Shop
That was a sad story Truck shop ! Had a similar accident happen to a customer . He was cutting fire wood and out of nowhere falls a " widow maker "spear shaped tree limb . It missed his upper body but went in to his calf muscle just below the knee joint . Wrong time at the wrong place ........ Could not replicate the event if we tried . Had to amputate the foot , He's getting fitted for a new prosthetic foot now at 72 years old . This old cat has cheated death for many years . Flying aircraft for the military in Viet Nam and commercial later . Only to be taken down buy a tree limb . Like buddy Bob says ," when your time comes aint nothin anyone can do about it ."
Isn't it the same way with emissions? There are a lot of truck drivers and companies around here that will pay a shop to go to the police if they've been stopped and say that they are scheduled to have an emissions system put in next week. Is this in the gray area, or is it downright wrong?
td25c: it is Vietnam.
Today i was working on a truck and i heared one of the guys say the pickup he was serviceing had a hud seal leaking i looked at it and remembered that we had told the owner last time that it was leaking now both sides are leaking .Now for the dumb part its steal under warrenty he said he was going to trade it off before long and didnt want to have it fixed. I want so bad to get away from dealing with this stuffi it realy gets to me;
I told a customer on Nov 1 that by Nov 30 we would no longer be doing their repairs. We have been taking care of 9 tractors and 12 sets of A trains plus two 40' footers for them for 21 years. Their company has gotten bigger and their running the crap out of the equipment. Bringing it in covered in mud this time of year for years. Just got tired of it. I really don't care where they take them for repair just don't call us anymore. My company has grown and our extra time has become rather thin. The manager for that company tried not to look shocked but now his repair bills will climb. I go to work at 6:00 a.m. everyday, on days they needed a service done I would be there at 4:00 a.m. so they could have the rig by 7:30 a.m. and sometimes squeeze one of their rigs in on Saturday or Sunday because I work 7 days a week. Our yard is full of our own rigs on the weekend so that's when those get serviced and during the week our satellite trucks come in. And their trucks were not just a service-it was wheel seals, brakes, electrical, air problems you name it we would have it done in time for them. But no more, when I see one of their trucks on the highway from now on I'm going to be driving on the fog line. Truck Shop
To a degree .Nothing wrong with that ........ Times change & people overcome hardships of the past ......... What don't kill ya will just make you tougher . Only to come back to common ground in the present time .... https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/09/waiting-for-trump-in-hanoi-215809 No way would I ever bother wasting anyone's time trying to report a trucker to the DOT . What a joke .
I found the article eye opening. For a nation that hated the US so heavily in the 60's and 70's they now find they 'Need' the US. My how times change. The old guard in Hanoi probably are losing their totalitarian grip on their society finding there are better ways and allowing them to slowly assimilate into the society for as OLD men they have little advantage any longer should the nation's youth decide time for a change. I suspect in another forty years the Communist regime will not be so prevalent nor as popular and ever so falling by the wayside as is worldwide.
Was thinking about this thread when we loaded some old boilers out of a factory . Scrap yard sent up a nice broke back trailer from previous jobs . Boilers were around 24,000 pounds each . Put one on the front & the other on the rear of the trailer ..... She bellied down pretty good with both units on it . Was not real hip on the way the Trucker tied them down ..... I made a few suggestions on how to tie them down but the Trucker was happy with the way it was .... OK .....................The way td25c looks at it ...................... At this point it's the drivers job to see they get to the final destination . He passed all the tests and the State gave him a CDL license & some trucking outfit hired him . It's the States problem if they are putting drivers on the road that lack common sense & skills that go with the job ..... Not my problem . I aint gonna call & complain to anyone ........... It would be pointless .
I am fond of saying: CAPITALISM is a DESCRIPTION of the WAY THINGS ACTUALLY ARE. Communism, Socialism, Facism, Mercantilism (what we have in this country), etc. are not alternatives to capitalism. They are overlaid on top of capitalism (reality) to try to control it, usually for the advantage of a few who would rather not work so hard or have the desire to tell others what to do. Not sure how DOT got to this discussion but there is my opinion.
DOT would fall under the " Shake ya down " category . LOL !
The like to say it's in the name of safety. The only purpose it serves is revenue.
Today a guy stoped at the shop needing a tire fixed on a car trailer he was hauling a pickup he was useing 2 ratchet straps to tie it down. The day before he had come in at noon wanting me to put on 4 trailer tires on another trailer i had more than i could get done and had skiped lunch he throw a fit because i wouldnt do it wright now. It took alot to not go off on him about not tieing the pickup down. The shop was busy so i helped out on some oil changes one was a female teacher she left her car for the morning. It had a receiver hitch with no pin. I thought it must be rusted in but it didnt take much to pull it out.I was going to have a talk with her but she didnt end up comeing back tell the end of the day and i had mellod out so i told her i had pulled it out and left it in the car.
My tri axle dump truck got stoped by TN DOT for roadside inspection. It is a constant battle with a 1997 year truck to keep it up to snuff. I have only had it for a year and by this time next year I think every bolt on part will have been replaced. Truck passed with no warning or ticket. One tail light was in the cab where it got knocked out that earilier that day. Driver showed him the light and all the trooper said is to get it it fixed soon. My driver and I were both blown away.
Keep the machines up to par and they don't care how old they are.
No real opinion on reporting to DOT.....too many variables to make that call on here. If you honestly believe that something is so unsafe it should not be on the road, call the DOT, run it by them, if they're truly concerned they'll want to know more and know who. As for CVIP inspections. We have big orange stickers, if a truck is a blatant failure on an inspection it gets a big orange Out of Service sticker on the windshield....no driving away, no taking it somewhere else, you're done until you fix your truck, end of story. And we have to do our inspections every 6 months and every 3rd inspection is a "wheel off" inspection....real pain in the *** and wallet with Daytons, even worse for the few that are running planetaries... When I moved from BC I let my inspectors ticket slide...too much of a pain in the butt and too much liability. On the flip side, in the Yukon you don't even need to be a mechanic, let alone a Red Seal Journeyman to get your inspectors ticket....kinda ridiculous really.
Biggest thing I've noticed with trucks was if you kept the truck looking good (ie clean, good rubber, no body damage etc) the CVSE are less likely to hassle you. If you think about it, which truck is more likely to have issues: a newer truck with bald tires, bent bumper, bent cab steps and dented fuel tanks, OR an old truck that's clean, polished and looks like the owner takes pride in it? I'm pretty picky with stuff that will be on the road. We have a lot of trailered stuff (gens, compressors, pumps etc). Every time I happen to be in the shop and working on one I always jack them up and check the wheel bearing play and the trailer brakes. Only takes 10 more minutes.
When I bought my 1987 Ford LTL9000 for a hobby truck I had it plated commercial until it qualified for historical plates. since I didn't want any surprises with a privately owned Class 8 truck and traler I had a visit with the MI DOT officer domiciled at our county highway department garage. One of the things he said as long as I kept it shiny and good looking I'd get green lighted at the scales and waived thru any roadside inspection line. He said they're looking for the poorly maintained ones and they usually are not the shiny older ones.