The DOT guys have been on a bit of a rampage locally, I'm up to my ears in brake jobs, wheel seals, and wiring issues. Getting a bunch of PM work too, (fix it before they catch me). so much for the off-season slowdown.
DAMN THE DOT!!!! (From a driver’s perspective haha) Every June when the blitz happens our guys get nervous. I say load the wagon, don’t worry about the mule
Yeah well I know one of the DOT officers, he is a experienced mechanic. And I know he is hell on construction and farm equipment. He was told through another party that I said {He can just have at a Tate Transportation rig and that if he finds things wrong then I'm not doing my job} His reply was Tate rigs cross port of entry scales everyday so I'm probably wasting my time with those plus their a Trusted Carrier in Ore and a top five green light company in the northwest. I thought that was a ok thing to hear. Truck Shop
Having a good reputation is priceless. When I drove for Conoco the DOT never messed with our trucks... they knew.
Heck, those guys are my best salesmen.
Our state is so broke it can't even harass us properly. As they say, we don't get all the government we pay for. The DOT cop could sit outside any grain elevator in my area and wear out pens writing tickets. We have an annual state inspection for trucks over 8,000 lbs, but the "inspectors" just look for the obvious safety stuff: lights, ABS light, tires, etc. I've seen some sketchy stuff wearing a brand new inspection sticker. Once in a while they will sit outside the scrap yards and have a field day. Not with the semis, but the pickups. Most look worse than the stuff they are feeding into the crusher. They roll in with no tie downs, no insurance, etc.
MO DOT are called Brown Shirts and NOT necessarily because they do wear brown. Unless are a bit older and remember clouded history would not understand the tyrannical nature of these people. Were my best supplier of repair work for a number of years, now the Road Work techs are pretty prevalent and get loads of work from them even as they have to watch out. Really good guy I worked with a few decades back went to business for himself, lighter work, emergency repairs as at the scale house, then some time back HIS truck got an impromptu inspect, ended up being towed back to his yard and down for a week. Something along the lines of a Cobbler's children never have good shoes!! He does NOT ignore his truck anymore!
Yes, no reason to repair something that hasn't quite broken yet when you have all the parts and tools on the truck to repair it whenever it does...might as well squeeze the last mile.... That is why my truck always has a battery that is on its last leg from some take-out, I always have new batteries on the truck should I need one.
Jack had a few, annoying', issues axle seal(s), brakes were a slight tad weak on thickness, was topping off p/s fluid rather often leak ignored, electric horn did not work, air horn trumpets had fallen off from the diaphragm housing corrosion failures, a few lights Did still work, tires were Slightly rough on tread thickness while missing two lugnuts and last he was a little lax on keeping the paperwork up on inspections, just a FEW weeks delinquent!! Ticket wasn't so bad, the red OOS service sticker on the Drivers side W/S was a little extreme by his words.
Is it just me or has dot gotten thicker in mo? I used to rarely see them and now its a monthly occurrence! Something changed and it suks!
Haven't paid much attention, they have to get bigger britches from eating too much? HAHAHAHA!!! I do know the Cities and Counties are starting to do their own thing, STL City AND County both have their version of DOT, Franklin and St. Charles counties also. The little men and women in brown are not so friendly where numbers are going up.
As truck driver for 22 years now, I say: I’m all for the breaks ant steering inspections!!! In my experience I’ve seen trucks driving around that I don’t want to be sharing the roadways with!!! One of them showed up at apple wear house in Yakima ( forgot the name of it, one of the ones on Occidental Ave.) literally without break shoes on his trailer!!! I pointed it out to him and he was very surprised!!! Said they’re fell out somewhere along the way!!! On the other hand I hate when cops harass drivers for nothing or for little things - I once got $275 ticket for one of the five ID lights being out in Michigan!
News report last night out of KC MO, the cops chased down a semi for a few miles after noticing there were NO tires on one set of trailer duals just rims, Had been called in by auto drivers that saw the truck throwing sparks for over 12 miles. Another in STL area showed a set of duals, brake drum hub and all that came off a trailer. Had to have been run no lube a LONG time as the hub cap was Melted away in the photos, takes quite awhile to burn a bearing to that final failure. MORONS are everywhere.