If you weigh 16001 in Indiana or show that on your plates, you need to stop. One quirk to all these rules is that if everything that you are hauling is your personal property, not for sale, not for hire, (your furniture, household stuff etc) you can do as you please. Like drive a rented semi to move from coast to coast, no logbook,no scales. I know this sounds like krap but I have been coached by a DOT cop based in Seymour In. He must have known his stuff because he regulary went to national contests for those guys and came back with the big prizes. I guess I need a new coach, Cody had a heart attack last fall and died before he hit the ground.

 

Here in AK the longshoremen (dockworker's union) went on strike for a week last year. Alaska gets most of its freight via cargo ships. Let me tell ya, this state almost started looking for ways to survive a famine 'cause the grocery store shelves were getting scarce, you couldn't buy this or that, and nobody knew when the strike would be over. Some companies started hiring truckers to move some stuff from the lower 48 through Canada.

Yeah, ask that girl if she'd be willing to give up half of the highways she drives on so the railways can be built over top of them, 'cause that's just about the volume of train traffic it would cause! And these people are VOTERS! I'm all for the right to vote, but I think they should add a stipulation to that right: You need to be educated on what you're voting on!

I almost got a CDL. I drove a truck w/ a 40' lowboy on it. If I could have mastered the shifting w/o using the clutch I probably would have gone for the test. But I only had a couple days to learn it and hardly any traffic-free roads to drive on. Anyway, I have total respect for ALL truckers after experiencing what they go through. It also taught me to be very aware of my surroundings and to watch what other people are doing. Like it was said before, people who only drive light vehicles think trucks can do what their vehicle does and they get stupid around you.

I think a trucker's strike would be interesting to see. I wonder what the gov't would do about it?

 

Haulin Dixie pretty much sumed it up. I've been driving truck for 29yrs. I gave up over the road 21yrs ago to drive tanker within a 200 mile stretch. Still very highly regulated but not near as stressful as 48 state hauling. I've always kept up on my maintainence & records & have had no run ins with the dot police here in Oregon. I get inspected once or twice a year & always get my sticker for passing inspection. I run a transponder which lets me go by the scales if they have it turned on. Weight is never an issue for I haul the same amount of gallons & weigh the same every trip. Here in Oregon if your not hauling for hire, commercial then no need to go thru scales.

 

That was my point. There is no way you can build rail spurs to all these little towns that have to have service.

A small town close to here talked about making it a city ordinance to not allow any trucks over 18k pounds inside the city limits. What they were trying to do was drive a man out of business who had his trucks in the south end of town. They were tired of "fixing" the road where these trucks went down to the shop.

Holy cow what a pot to stir!! He made it clear that if he was going to be outlawed from coming into town, that there would be no deliveries to the school, to the store, to the gas stations, the whole nine yards. The city council said "No, thats not what we mean" and he informed them that if you banned one, you banned them all. Changed their tune very quickly.

I have driven these trucks before. I know what it is like. We just all need to keep an eye to the road. The people that are in these small cars need to realize what a service these big trucks are doing for them, and have some respect. Is it going to happen? Beats me, and I am not going to hold my breath.

Oh well...

 

That's a two way street as well. Don't know how many times I've seen the big rigs do idiotic moves during my commute to work each day. I'm not saying get rid of the trucks, but the industry needs to do a much better job of policing its own. There are still far too many "cowboys" out there that give the rest of the truckers a bad name.

 

Same can be said about idiot 4 wheel drivers. Minority give the rest a bad name. How often you see a semi in the left lane doing 5 under the speed limit oblivious to the lineup of people behind them? Or see their road at the last minute and peel across 3 lanes of traffic cutting people off? And the people in the cars drive 12 to 20k a year. CDL drivers have many more miles to drive. Always remember that the truck drivers are out there trying to make a living to feed themselves and their families.
As far as safety goes any car driver can bring their vehicle into a dealership or garage and be told they have loose front end parts or need brakes. If they refuse the work they can proceed onto the roads with an unsafe vehicle. Unless they cause a crash the DOT or police will do nothing. (we took tags off a very unsafe van at the dealership and we were told we can't do that) Think it is that way with a truck? Fines would be huge for driving a known unsafe truck. Why can the soccer mom in her minivan filled with kids drive a vehicle she knows has defects? Because the trucks are large and the public sees them as a menace. Like haulin said, majority of truck/car accidents are caused by the car.

 

Last year, we got a call for a highway accident involving a semi and a minivan. When we got out there, we found that the elderly couple in the minivan had come to a screeching halt in the middle lane because there was a 5 gallon bucket in the roadway and they didn't want to run over it. Unfortunately, there was the semi traveling behind them. It was determined by witnesses and skid-marks that the semi was at least 300 feet behind the minivan, but had NO chance of stopping in that short distance at highway speeds. The elderly couple was killed. Even tho witnesses confirmed the truck had no chance of avoiding the van and was doing nothing wrong, the driver was cited for 'failure to control vehicle' and involuntary manslaughter.

As a part time PO, (that's police officer, not pee-on!), as well as a firefighter, I did my best to convince the state police truck team not to bring charges against the truck driver, but bring the charges they did, and they stuck. That driver now has no license and no job. All because of the incompetant actions of of someone else.

I drove a truck for a living but stopped about 10 years ago, simply because I could no longer be comfortable behind the wheel. I kept seeing these accidents in my mind as I was driving and it made me a nervous wreck. Maybe if I hadn't been involved in the fire and police departments for so many years, and seen so many accidents, I would be less apprehensive and still be driving commercially. But people do stupid things and, unfortunately, someone else usually ends up paying for it.

chaikwa.

 

You said center lane, if he was doing the speed limit why wasn't he in the right lane? What if that was something other than a bucket they stopped for? We get calls on kids bolting across the freeway to take a short cut all the time. The advantage truckers have over private vehicles, is they have cb's so they can cheat. They drive heavy and dangerous equipment. That's why they are held to a higher standard. And should be. No they are not prosecuted on every incident. We take minor crashes all the time involving big rigs. Many are reported as hit and run. We know to check a little further down the road because he couldn't get stopped just right. The law says when injury is involved, the truck shall be inspected. If you coincidently have a violation, it'll get found, don't cry about getting written if you know it's there. When there are the large volumes of people in any industry, there will be goof *****. And just how do you weed them out. It's not just the drivers. The law also helps protect the drivers from the owner that pressures you to violate. We have drivers all the time, coming in to report an owner that is violating dangerously or working under poor conditions. Many truckers are helping get drunks off the road, and also call in dangerous situations. They are appreciated. At the same time, there isn't a day that goes by that we aren't having officers darting through traffic trying to pull debris off the road that came off a truck. Especially the salvage trucks. Tons of calls on pups darting all over the place. Yes I strongly agree that moving vans should be held to a higher standard. As far as private trailers. They aren't exempt from load violations. They may not be required to stop at inspection stations because they are not commercial, but usually it doesn't take much more than a glance at the load to tell wether they should be "picked on". OBTW, the insurance industry has the largest statistcs/crash investigation operation in the nation. 2nd largest lobying group. I image they have more of an insight and input on what laws to push for than the general public. Flame away fellas....

Gotta go , have a couple officers and an ambulance checking a contractor withmedical problems out by the rest area.

Don

 

FWIW. I was a driver for over 10 years, I quit driving after the new one license deal came out several years ago. In the last fifteen years I have noticed a big difference in drivers, both truck, and 4'wheelers. Niether group is any better than the other any more it seems. You see both groups being NASCAR drivers six inces off the bumper of the one in front of them at 70-80 MPH and weaving in and out of traffic to be 2 cars ahead of each other after 100 miles. Funny thing I watched several times on trips between Harrisburg, Pa and Syracuse NY drivers of both running like crazy fools the entire distance to pull off for fuel at the same place as i do and the time difference was only 30 seconds. I feel all drivers should remember that most if not all states inform the drivers that driving is a privilage not a right.. Drive like your life depends on it, and think about a family you might kill if you dont.

Off my soapbox for now..........

 

Redleg wrote:
"You said center lane, if he was doing the speed limit why wasn't he in the right lane? What if that was something other than a bucket they stopped for?"

I guess you have to see Massachusetts traffic to understand this scenario a little better. There is no speed restriction on trucks like there is in Michigan, meaning whatever the highway is posted for (65) both cars and trucks are allowed to achieve that limit. And the only lane restriction is the extreme left lane. This was a 3 lane highway, so the truck was well within its' legal area of travel and speed limit. The traffic in MA is much like that in CA in that it's almost always heavy and usually not even able to achieve the posted speed limit. I lived just 30 miles north of Boston and if I needed to be in the city for an 8AM appointment, I had to leave my house no later than 5:30AM.

"They drive heavy and dangerous equipment. That's why they are held to a higher standard. And should be."

I agree, TOTALLY. Overweight violations are common in MA with the highest legal limit, and only with a special permit, around the 105,000lb mark. This particular truck was empty. It was a single axle tractor with a 38' single axle trailer.

"No they are not prosecuted on every incident."

In MA, it is almost an unwritten rule that if a truck is involved, the truck is at fault. It was interesting when I was a PO AND an owner/operator of a large truck! I had a lot of 'debates' with fellow officers, both in and out of the courtroom setting! One particular area of debate occured when the air brake maintenance rule first came into being. I was stopped for a roadside inspection and the officer found that I had one brake out of adjustment. (I routinely adjusted my slack adjusters, but this one had, unbeknownst to me, failed during the course of the day) I stated I would adjust it, but he said I couldn't do that unless I was certified in that area of repair. I asked where I could get certified, knowing that there was nothing set up yet to accomodate that training. He stated that there were no means to certify yet, but the law was written and as such, he must enforce it. I countered that if there was no means of certification as yet, how did HE become certified to make an assessment of same? HE had no answer and let the matter drop. THEN I showed my PO ID badge and we had a real nice conversation of the new CDL laws. (I never made it known to any officer that stopped me that I was a PO until after everything had been settled and the citation issued, because I don't like that kind of 'selective enforcement')

"It's not just the drivers. The law also helps protect the drivers from the owner that pressures you to violate. We have drivers all the time, coming in to report an owner that is violating dangerously or working under poor conditions."

That's sort of true. One guy I was working for routinely made us run overweight. Even tho it was my own truck and I knew better, it was either that or go home. When I DID get stopped, weighed and cited, I told the officer what was going on and he re-wrote the violation to the company owner, not me. Great, right? NOT! I was 'no longer needed' after that day. That company is still making its' O/O's run overweight or they have no work.

"As far as private trailers. They aren't exempt from load violations. They may not be required to stop at inspection stations because they are not commercial, but usually it doesn't take much more than a glance at the load to tell wether they should be "picked on". "

Private trucks/trailers, RV's, campers, firetrucks... ANYTHING that's over 10,000lbs should be held to the same standards, whether they're hauling for hire or not. Weight is weight, and that 30,000lb RV stops just as hard as the 30,000lb dump truck! If someone has the money to sink into a 40 or 50 thousand dollar rig, and the time to use it, they should certainly have the time and money to get properly trained and licensed. PERIOD! (Now who's gonna get flamed? )

I didn't respond to your post Don, to 'flame' you, or provoke an argument. I know where you're coming from, and for the most part, I totally agree with you. I just wish we could have a consistant set of rules throughout the nation, AND a consistant method of enforcement so it's an even playing field no matter where you go. The CDL laws were SUPPOSED to remedy this, but if anything, they made it MORE complicated. I hold a partnership in a horse-trailer dealership in MA, and some of my customers have been cited for NOT having a medical card. They aren't required to have a CDL, but if their truck and trailer comprise a weight of 10,000lbs or more, they're required to have that card. How are they supposed to know that? They aren't held to any other CDL standard, so they'd have no REASON to know. Heck, I didn't know it until one of them came in to show me their citation! (Yeah I know, 'ignorance of the law is no excuse to break it'!)

I would love to get together with you sometime Don, if for nothing else than to exchange 'war stories'. I bet we have a few good ones between us!

chaikwa.

 

Never said I believe private trailers SHOULD allowed a lower standard. Had a woman driving a Grand Cherokee one time, put the tongue of the U-haul through her lift gate befor it barrel rolled down the shoulder. It almost took her Jeep with it according to witnesses. Wrong ball size.

That's also part of life, making the best choice. Is this guy the only guy that will hire me? Will the profit be worth the ticket and points? Took a gamble and lost once.

In the mean time, whenever you feel like grabbing your rod and waders, give a holler. Some of us have been getting together in Traverse City once during the winter. It was hard getting our schedules to mesh last summer. You're not that far south. If you fish at all, I plan on hitting the Pere Marquette in Baldwin again this weekend.

Back on topic for commytoes, they do run temp weigh stations/ check points here too. They tend to slam the side routes near the scales hard at times too.

 

dang this topic inspired alot of long posts.. except this 1

 

Redleg:

You made some very good points in your post on this subject!

------------
_______________________________________
Quote by "spots":

"How often you see a semi in the left lane doing
5 under the speed limit oblivious to the lineup of
people behind them?"
_______________________________________

spots:

I don't see that ALOT, but I do see some OTR
truckers do that!! What I do see ALOT though is
them coming up behind four wheelers, pickup trucks,
and RV's at high speeds and get right up on the
bumpers of those vehicles and "draft them" until
the vehicle ahead of them moves out of their way
"driving home" what I refer to as the "Intimidation
Factor!" Now you tell me is that safe??
At a speed of 55 MPH a fully loaded tractor-trailer
will take approximately 395 feet to come to a complete
stop!! That is including "Perception+Reaction" and
the "Actual Braking Distance" in feet! For comparison,
a passenger car will take approximately 284 feet to
stop at that speed. And that is at 55 MPH, not 65 or
70! Yeah, IMO the trucks should be held to higher
standard! As I said, I have NOTHING against the drivers
or companies that are in the trucking business! My
brother has driven OTR for years and I have done
"ride-alongs" with him when he drove "swinging
beef" from Texas and Montana out to the Midwest.
It is a tough, demanding job and there are alot
of bad four wheeler drivers but IMO there are a
small percentage of OTR truck drivers who give the
good drivers and the entire industry a bad name!!

-----------
John_P

 

I commiserate with you. That's why I quit driving for a living. I long for a return of the ICC, when things made sense and all the states had to abide by the Federal law and not create bigger problems than those that already existed.

Rv's (road vermin) are the biggest pain in the butt that ever existed. When o'when will the states finally get up some guts and go after them? Talk about overweight and dangerous vehicles! I haven't seen one of them that wasn't leaning to one side or another. Now those guys need to be weighed and inspected and fined. Any twit with a d/l can drive one off the lot without so much as a CDL.

As much as I hate the weigh stations, they are important and necessary, sometimes. In SD, when the highway patrol blocks the interstates and makes you pull onto portables, that's more about harassment than making the road safer.

 

You always have to remember the 10% rule. It applies to all groups, regardless of how diverse. Boy Scouts, teachers, truck drivers, police, army, blacks, whites, all the rest of the races and so on.

There are 10% that excel, are safe, knowledgable, level headed, considerate....

There are 10% that ruin the image, inconsiderate, liars, cheaters, not safe to be around, hateful people.

Then there are all us in between, just trying to get through life to its just deserts.