Have you ever reported any one to the Dot?

[Truck Shop]

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.

 

[Old Doug]

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.

 

[DMiller]

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.

 

[Junkyard]

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

 

[old-iron-habit]

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.

 

[Truck Shop]

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

 

[hvy 1ton]

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.

 

[Old Doug]

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.

 

[DMiller]

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.

 

[Old Doug]

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.

 

[DMiller]

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.

 

[Crummy]

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.

 

[Old Doug]

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.

 

[DMiller]

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.

 

[mitch504]

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.

 

[Truck Shop]

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

 

[DMiller]

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.

 

[Truck Shop]

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 sh!T 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

 

[td25c]

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 ."

 

[ianholt150]

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?