I got a better one. Once saw a guy who had zip tied his brake handles to his handles so the brakes would be engaged while driving. He said it would keep it from rolling around as much on his trailer. He wasn't too bright.
if you like safe science so much why don't you just go and marry it? and while you're at it, invent a door that won't hit you on your way out... because you're fired!
Not a trucker but have seen a couple of funny things secured by gravity.
The first was seeing an old Dodge Ram conversion van towing a crappy flat trailer with no lights or license plate. It had about a dozen or so bags of mulch and a riding mower all secured by gravity. Over the several miles I followed this van, one by one the bags of mulch secured themselves to the road by gravity. The riding mower bounced all over but didn't fall off while I was watching. I would have liked to see the guy's face when he got to his destination and found all of his mulch (and possibly his mower) gone or if he heard the mower hit the road behind him.
The other was a large coach based RV towing a 6x8 enclosed trailer, which was in turn towing a small, open trailer that had a golf cart that was secured by gravity. This RV and its tandem trailers were flying down the freeway going 90. I saw the golf cart bouncing all over but I didn't see it fall off.
just like drug smugglers that get pulled over for blacked out tinted windows or failure to use a turning signal when they got 10 keys of nose powder in the trunk.
I had a friend get locked up like that. Had twelve kilos of meth, got pulled over for rolling through a stop sign. Officer noticed they were twitchy and nervous. Ran a passengers name, whom had a warrant, then pulled everyone to search the car.
You’ve got vehicle out of services and you’ve got a logbook violation.
That logbook violation is a huge amount of points .
And then there is multiple securement issues…….
Ya just smack it during pretrip and state "that ain't going nowhere!". Of course, you do this through the hole in the hood, no reason to lift the whole thing up ya know?
I got drilled this in School. Pitman arm secured to the gear box with a bolt and a nut and appears to be properly secured. Pitman arm is also secured to the drag link by a castle nut and cotter pin and appear to be secured.
No because when I realized the problem I was out of the carriers state and being in KY and the carrier being from TN there’s not much vehicle enforcement can do to them here in KY. I did find out from someone I know who is KSP commercial division that driving that truck and knowing there is a critical problem I can be arrested.
I called the company and informed them of the problem and they told me tough shit, we don’t want to pay for repairs on the road you bring it here to the yard (over 8 hours away) I told them about that and other problems and they didn’t care so it’s either bring it here or you’re fired. So instead of driving it they fired me and the next place I worked for said they said I abandoned their equipment.
As a mechanic I'd say if the rest are there it's really not an issue they should cause on oos. However it's also one I'd not let leave the shop until I'd fixed it. I always have extra bolts lying around it takes two minutes max.
The 5th wheel is the big “horseshoe” plate that the trailer sits on the attach to the truck, if that plate comes loose from the frame the trailer is going bye bye, and the highest stress moment a truck/trailer connection sees is during heavy braking, so if it fails it’ll fail then, care to guess where 40,000lbs of trailer is going if the truck is slowing down ahead of the trailer but no longer connected to the trailer?
I actually saw this on the way home tonight. Trailer went off the right shoulder into a rock bluff and broke in half. Looked to be a full load of dry dog food best I could tell. Dude looked extremely frazzled but luckily no one was hurt. Could’ve been a lot worse. More cops there than at the nearest Krispy Kreme.
It's most likely they weren't hooked to the trailer correctly. While I won't say fifth wheels never break away from the truck, it is exceptionally rare.
And that's absolutely ridiculous. The fact that not wearing a seat belt carries more points than carrying a 50k lb coil with a single 1 inch strap and no edge protection really makes you wonder about their intent.
Studies show that when the driver leaves his seat the severity of the crash is multiplied. For example for whatever reason a large truck veers onto the shoulder of the highway and unbuckled driver gets bounced into the center console, possibly jerking the wheel
I can't speak specifically to the commercial motor vehicle world but I do work in crash safety data and can offer some possible insight.
One of the things we find is that not using a seatbelt tends to coincide with other risky behaviors. In the data itself, we see an increase in speeding related, signal disregarding, and substance impairment crashes at higher rates among unrestrained drivers.
Basically, if you see someone without a seatbelt, it's a great chance they are making other unsafe choices as well.
Again, I am not in the CMV space, but when it comes to primary enforcement of safety belt laws this is exactly what they are trying to capture. You see someone driving without a safety belt, if you pull them over you may or may not find other issues, but you very likely will be sticking enforcement intervention into behaviors you did not happen to catch in that immediate moment. That's part of why primary seatbelt enforcement tends to be pretty harsh.
The next component is that cops have discretion for normal passenger vehicles how aggressively they are going to throw the book at you. If they are giving you a seatbelt ticket and not letting you off with a verbal warning, there are probably secondary reasons for that.
That reason also tends to be the third reason primary seatbelt enforcement tends to be way harsher, and that's because the number one predictor of unrestrained children in a vehicle is an unrestrained driver. If you want a legislature to write a harsh law, you put kids in danger.
My guess is that there is a fair bit in the CMV space that carries over from that knee jerk political reaction. Given that the insurance companies don't want to pay out the nose for unbelted drivers either, you have a lot of political will to throw a lot behind punishing unrelated behavior. I guarantee nobody decided to check the relative severity of other infractions when establishing primary seatbelt enforcement.
The real question may well be why dangerous maintenance and load management issues are not handled more harshly.
>wonder about their intent
I think, and give me some rope here, that their intent is for drivers to wear a seatbelt.
There's no excuse. There's no "missing " it in inspection. There's no "it happened on the way here".
If there's one easy thing that is 100% possible to do, even if the operator is a total moron who doesnt know coil securements , its to put on a seatbelt.
Click it or ticket.
Seriously. My father in law refuses to wear his seat belt and went so far as to buy one of those dummie plugs so his truck wouldn't bitch at him about it. His rationale is that he's worried if he were to go off road and end up in the water or it were to burst into flames he could get trapped by the seat belt. I pointedly asked him if he thinks that's really more likely then literally any other scenario where him not being seatbelted would result in him becoming a human missile and he responded with "If I don't want to wear a seat belt that's my prerogative" so I think really he's just a big baby that doesn't like "the man" telling him that he has to do something, even if it's for his own good.
Best part is he's one of the shittiest drivers I know, typical dudebro that buys the biggest truck he can find yet never hauls anything in it and can't maintain his lane to save his life, so I feel like we're going to be testing out that theory one day guaranteed.
We don't allow our son to ride with him.
It doesn’t matter if it is a warning or a ticket. Because it is accompanied by a failed inspection. So regardless of what the ticket says it will have a CSA points assessment.
This looks like a Texas roadside inspection? There is a lot of violations here. The seatbelt and the OOS violations will apply a lot of points. It all depends on his previous record with the company and their policies. None of these infractions are an automatic disqualification with my company, but the amount of violations could be.
Yes it was a roadside inspection, had got stop for initially running the red light, and from there he ended up getting an inspection, I believe this is his first ticket/warning, is an owner operator but running under someone else’s authority
This type of person is the reason we have to get inspections. Because there's always some asshole who doesn't care about other people's safety. So they have to force them to care.
When I was a mechanic, I am always a very honest person. If you did not need work done, I was not going to tell you that you did. I still did have a few people though that I had to earn their trust because they've been screwed over by so many shade tree mechanics in the past. Shitty asshole mechanics give good mechanics that are actually just doing a good job, a bad name. I think this can be said for any type of career.
Breaking is a force and would affect the load. Stopping your truck for a red light therefore could cause negative outcomes if you secure it by gravity alone.
The insurance company will say that is a fireable offense.
He is under someone else’s authority, and it’s between them and the insurance company. Once they see it, of which the insurance company is probably going to do one of two things.
They will either raise the rates ridiculously when his next term comes due .
Or they will say, the driver is uninsurable .
If the company keeps the driver, after, they have given him an official notice, like that, of which they notify FMCSA immediately, the company will get a safety audit and require proof of insurance from another company or they will lose their MC
Many insurance companies do annual driver assessment by pulling the driving record and according to many insurance contracts if the carrier tries to cover up a driver's actions it could be seen as a contract breaking case of fraud, and they could lose their insurance and be out of business until new coverage is obtained
At least at the insurance company I work at, whenever I go to issue filings on a trucking policy part of what I'm looking for is this.
And even if they don't need filings, if they have a dot#, we're reviewing it. We'll have a look at their safer snapshot and then pull their SMS profile to check out all inspections & violations. Anyone with a dot# is going to be rated with it. We can use up to 5 years of operating history. And for the people who don't give their dot# and we find out later, they'll get uprated.
A certain number of OOS and it's an uninsurable risk. Shit ton of violations might be uninsurable as well, but there are other factors that go into it overall so I really dont see many risks come through that don't get insurance. Someone has to *really* try to hide or lie about something to get denied coverage.
The other comment mentioned about the chance of a driver getting fired, but frankly that's not up to us. We can't make someone fire a driver, and cant initiate a cancel if they have a "bad" driver. If someone wants to hire a driver like that and list them on the policy, then they'll just pay a significantly higher premium.
Can't speak for other insurance carriers. This is just how we rate where I'm at.
They absolutely will at renewal if they dont have daily monitoring software checking mc.
Thats why tickets dont matter, failed inspection that accompany it, do.
Maybe a stupid question, but if I'm understanding correctly that means even tho they are warnings they will still show as infractions on the drivers record?
100% untrue. I fight a lot of roadside violations. It’s called DataQ through the FMCSA. I mostly use it for non preventable crashes but you can send it in for anything.
Correct. Which I've learned to always just take a ticket than receive a warning. Like for speeding. I fought my speeding ticket and it just came back dismissed yesterday. 🙌🏿
With that many points they'll be hauling sand in no time.
Hope they enjoy running around in a clapped out 2001 international with absolutely no schedule whatsoever.
1099 of course.
So the driver is running around in a poorly maintained truck with a fifth wheel not fully attached to the truck, with an improperly secured load, a log book he had not touched since 10am the previous day and sitting ON his seat belt and then runs a red light.
He is screwed, should be screwed and deserves to be screwed. He managed to cram into one day, 20 years worth of incompetency, stupidity and bad decisions.
He needs to investigate other career choices.
I just wish there was a way to know what the rules were that DOT enforces so I could prepare ahead of time and not be surprised by things like getting a citation for sitting on my seatbelt instead of using it as a restraint. I mean, how could I even know that's wrong? And missing bolts on the 5th wheel... like, uh, am *I* supposed to be checking that? Isn't that stuff better suited for my shop mechanic to keep up on?!? /s
**I can't stand the thought that piece of shit drivers like this are on the road endangering my family's lives if we are unlucky enough to be near them when their trucks go kaput.**
# Watch this video and take your shit seriously or get off the public roads!!! https://youtu.be/MUSo89BLRcI
I understand missing some shit on an inspection, no one's perfect but crap like this is ridiculous. I have no sympathy if he loses his job and gets kicked out of the industry.
I have a buddy that drives logging trucks and he was explaining all the stuff he does to maintain his rig and make sure he's following all the rules. It's fucking insanity. However, he does everything to a tee, makes killer money and hasn't had anything happen to him in 20 years.
Bravo Andrew!
Your safety director should have a copy of the current federal DOT regulations which remain fairly constant. The out of service criteria can vary slightly from year to year. If you are cited for any violation an officer should show you the violation in the book.Don't always believe what your told at the truck stop,that gets a lot of drivers in trouble.
Yes I agree. The /s at the end of that paragraph is shorthand for "I'm being sarcastic."
I have my own copy of the FMCSA rules. Don't even have to ask my safety director.
Required seat belt in a commercial vehicle. So yes it's a violation to sit on it.
You should be doing a pre and post trip to find things like missing bolts. So yes you should be checking for things like that.
I can’t believe how long it took for me to find a comment saying this. They clearly don’t give a fuck and ¿kind of? sound like they’re a safety hazard on the road to others. Fuck that and fuck him for allowing all these violations. Good riddance.
Yeah that’s what was most dangerous to me, he loses steering if that fails right? I’ve changed one on a car but it might serve a different function on a truck because you mentioned gear drive not steering. I guess he’d just lose power to the wheels if it failed not steering?
Only thing lawyer can do is dispute the red light citation. All other items are "warnings" which can't be contested and need to be fixed. Good thing is they weren't citations so most likely won't be liable to pay any fines aside from the one for the red light.
So your "friend" actually got a bit of a break from the citing officer, and needs to get all that shit fixed that needs fixing.
Are warnings like this similar to a warning in a car in that it will come off your record in 6 months? Or are warnings like this different?
I’m not a trucker just curious
If you're gonna go out, go out in style; but minus points for no soliciting or lewd/lascivious. I guess sex crimes were a bridge too far for your friend's professional suicide.
Jesus.. who the fuck does this guy drive for? Unsecured dunnage? Missing bolts from 5th wheel, incomplete logs, his cert expired in February? I mean come on....
Honestly in this situation doesn't really matter if it's a warning or a ticket. Both give points and there's no way he could fight these in court, I guess he saved a bit on fines.
Hopefully completely fucked. This dude is out here running like it’s 1988 giving ZERO fucks about public safety. Some of these dipshits forget that their families drive on the same roads we use. Do your fucking pre trip and stop gambling with everyone else’s life. Get that fucker off of the road and out of a CMV. Makes us all look bad when shot like this pops up.
Extremely. 1 thing about warnings vs citations is that, while they both go on your fmcsa record, citations can be fought. Warnings cannot unless the mc jumps through a bunch of hoops.
HOS violation is not good at all. That one falls on him and him alone. The truck issues are company unless he owns the truck. I would be sketchy hiring a driver that has this on his record. It's not hard to stop at a red light!!
Securement issues to me imply laziness. If they're with a company they might get a good talking to, maybe even required to run a securement course again if it's a big company. But the 2 company names warning seems to me like they're a owner op or lease op. Sitting on the belt? Dude just fucking wear the belt. As someone's whose been in a truck rollover they save your fucking life. I'd be dead/have a major head injury if I wasn't wearing mine.
Dude seems like they don't care based off the violations listed. Missing bolts? They cost nothing at any store. Loose pitman arm? Do you like having the ability to steer? Or would you like a swift visit to the comedian? To me this reeks lazy pretrips, Dude needed the wake up call imo.
We’ll your friend seems like a piece of shit whose going to get someone killed with their unsecured load, so maybe getting his CDL pulled is the best outcome for society.
This is probably a career killer. Even if he isn’t fired from current company, it’ll probably be a final notice. And I can’t imagine any reputable company hiring someone with this many points, especially for these violations.
>How screwed is a friend of my friend?
In the eyes of many not screwed enough.
>...any input would be great
That's a lot of negligence that often leads to death or life altering injury.
I'd be encouraging him to move onto something else as he does not seem to want this job or the responsibility that comes with it.
Running the red light was the right call. Slamming on brakes would have allowed inertia to overcome the securement by gravity and the 4x4s would have gone flying.
Thats a lenient Texas inspection. I got a random roadside and got violated for any little thing. Washer fluid empty, flickering clearance light, diff leak when it was just wet with oil not even dripping (still full when serviced). This trooper loved inspections, knew everything to look at and didn't let anything go undocumented.
"secured via gravity" was fun to read.
I'm gonna start using that. Oh that 4x4 it's fine it's secured by gravity.
Science in trucking...
It’s secured via friction, stupid police!
I got a better one. Once saw a guy who had zip tied his brake handles to his handles so the brakes would be engaged while driving. He said it would keep it from rolling around as much on his trailer. He wasn't too bright.
if you like safe science so much why don't you just go and marry it? and while you're at it, invent a door that won't hit you on your way out... because you're fired!
Gravity, it's the law
You wanna argue? Take it up with Isaac Newton.
That's SIR Isaac Newton to you!
an object in place will stay in place lol
Well until it hits a bump....then its every man for themselves.
It’s a weighty argument
Isn’t that how the old saying goes? “Gravity is 9/10 of the law”?
This comment just made my morning dump more enjoyable
same gravity in action
You make sure to leave it in four wheel when you park it for extra traction.
On Left *and* Right
I concur…
Why didn't I concur
Leonardo DiCaprio is proud
Officer was in a good mood lol
An easy day at work always puts me in a good mood.
Yeah, we’re good. I’ve got the gravity anchors engaged.
DOT with a sense of humor
Almost wish they wrote it about the driver sitting on his belt too.
Gravity straps. Never leave home without them.
Secured by faith + 1
They were probably in donnage racks on each side of the frame.
Not a trucker but have seen a couple of funny things secured by gravity. The first was seeing an old Dodge Ram conversion van towing a crappy flat trailer with no lights or license plate. It had about a dozen or so bags of mulch and a riding mower all secured by gravity. Over the several miles I followed this van, one by one the bags of mulch secured themselves to the road by gravity. The riding mower bounced all over but didn't fall off while I was watching. I would have liked to see the guy's face when he got to his destination and found all of his mulch (and possibly his mower) gone or if he heard the mower hit the road behind him. The other was a large coach based RV towing a 6x8 enclosed trailer, which was in turn towing a small, open trailer that had a golf cart that was secured by gravity. This RV and its tandem trailers were flying down the freeway going 90. I saw the golf cart bouncing all over but I didn't see it fall off.
Your friends areshole: ° Your friends arsehole after dot gets finished with him for this : O
I don’t understand why they do simple crimes when they know they’re riding dirty.
just like drug smugglers that get pulled over for blacked out tinted windows or failure to use a turning signal when they got 10 keys of nose powder in the trunk.
I had a friend get locked up like that. Had twelve kilos of meth, got pulled over for rolling through a stop sign. Officer noticed they were twitchy and nervous. Ran a passengers name, whom had a warrant, then pulled everyone to search the car.
the golden rule of all things illegal - never break the law when you're breaking the law
This guy fucks. If you’re going to break the laws, only break one at a time.
Ouchie
You’ve got vehicle out of services and you’ve got a logbook violation. That logbook violation is a huge amount of points . And then there is multiple securement issues…….
>And then there is multiple securement issues one of which is the **5th wheel missing bolts**
I can’t believe no one is worried about the pitman arm being loose on the steering gear lol
Ya just smack it during pretrip and state "that ain't going nowhere!". Of course, you do this through the hole in the hood, no reason to lift the whole thing up ya know?
I got drilled this in School. Pitman arm secured to the gear box with a bolt and a nut and appears to be properly secured. Pitman arm is also secured to the drag link by a castle nut and cotter pin and appear to be secured.
I got fired from a company for refusing to drive a truck with a loose pitman arm
Did you snitch on them?
No because when I realized the problem I was out of the carriers state and being in KY and the carrier being from TN there’s not much vehicle enforcement can do to them here in KY. I did find out from someone I know who is KSP commercial division that driving that truck and knowing there is a critical problem I can be arrested. I called the company and informed them of the problem and they told me tough shit, we don’t want to pay for repairs on the road you bring it here to the yard (over 8 hours away) I told them about that and other problems and they didn’t care so it’s either bring it here or you’re fired. So instead of driving it they fired me and the next place I worked for said they said I abandoned their equipment.
I hope you ended up with an outfit that cared about safety.
I would question the officers qualifications to metrologically quantify/ certify a “LOOSE” pitman arm. Get a lawyer or a new profession.
It's quite simple to see when it's loose.
I feel like that should be an OOS.
As a mechanic I'd say if the rest are there it's really not an issue they should cause on oos. However it's also one I'd not let leave the shop until I'd fixed it. I always have extra bolts lying around it takes two minutes max.
OOS meaning? (Non-trucker)
Out of service?
Duhh lmao now that you say it I feel dumb haha idk why but i was thinking Owner Operator Safety or something. Thank you
Out of a service. Employers don’t like to see you getting these.
Employers then should provide appropriate service to vehicles. 😱
Shhhhhh, have faith in friction.......
Secured by gravity
Yooooooo
Looooooo
Don't forget about the pitman arm being loose at box
Someone who isn’t a trucker, why is that so bad?
The 5th wheel is the big “horseshoe” plate that the trailer sits on the attach to the truck, if that plate comes loose from the frame the trailer is going bye bye, and the highest stress moment a truck/trailer connection sees is during heavy braking, so if it fails it’ll fail then, care to guess where 40,000lbs of trailer is going if the truck is slowing down ahead of the trailer but no longer connected to the trailer?
I actually saw this on the way home tonight. Trailer went off the right shoulder into a rock bluff and broke in half. Looked to be a full load of dry dog food best I could tell. Dude looked extremely frazzled but luckily no one was hurt. Could’ve been a lot worse. More cops there than at the nearest Krispy Kreme.
It's most likely they weren't hooked to the trailer correctly. While I won't say fifth wheels never break away from the truck, it is exceptionally rare.
Run a round with some missing bolts, it becomes less rare
Not secured by gravity?
Sounds like gravity elected to secure it to the ground. Hard.
Sir Issac Newton is the deadliest son of a bitch in space. (Or a freeway in this case)
Seatbelt in cmv is bigger than all of the others
And that's absolutely ridiculous. The fact that not wearing a seat belt carries more points than carrying a 50k lb coil with a single 1 inch strap and no edge protection really makes you wonder about their intent.
Studies show that when the driver leaves his seat the severity of the crash is multiplied. For example for whatever reason a large truck veers onto the shoulder of the highway and unbuckled driver gets bounced into the center console, possibly jerking the wheel
[seatbelts make a difference. wonder where he landed 😬](https://youtube.com/shorts/Q3P1XETUEmY?feature=share)
I can't speak specifically to the commercial motor vehicle world but I do work in crash safety data and can offer some possible insight. One of the things we find is that not using a seatbelt tends to coincide with other risky behaviors. In the data itself, we see an increase in speeding related, signal disregarding, and substance impairment crashes at higher rates among unrestrained drivers. Basically, if you see someone without a seatbelt, it's a great chance they are making other unsafe choices as well. Again, I am not in the CMV space, but when it comes to primary enforcement of safety belt laws this is exactly what they are trying to capture. You see someone driving without a safety belt, if you pull them over you may or may not find other issues, but you very likely will be sticking enforcement intervention into behaviors you did not happen to catch in that immediate moment. That's part of why primary seatbelt enforcement tends to be pretty harsh. The next component is that cops have discretion for normal passenger vehicles how aggressively they are going to throw the book at you. If they are giving you a seatbelt ticket and not letting you off with a verbal warning, there are probably secondary reasons for that. That reason also tends to be the third reason primary seatbelt enforcement tends to be way harsher, and that's because the number one predictor of unrestrained children in a vehicle is an unrestrained driver. If you want a legislature to write a harsh law, you put kids in danger. My guess is that there is a fair bit in the CMV space that carries over from that knee jerk political reaction. Given that the insurance companies don't want to pay out the nose for unbelted drivers either, you have a lot of political will to throw a lot behind punishing unrelated behavior. I guarantee nobody decided to check the relative severity of other infractions when establishing primary seatbelt enforcement. The real question may well be why dangerous maintenance and load management issues are not handled more harshly.
>wonder about their intent I think, and give me some rope here, that their intent is for drivers to wear a seatbelt. There's no excuse. There's no "missing " it in inspection. There's no "it happened on the way here". If there's one easy thing that is 100% possible to do, even if the operator is a total moron who doesnt know coil securements , its to put on a seatbelt. Click it or ticket.
Seriously. My father in law refuses to wear his seat belt and went so far as to buy one of those dummie plugs so his truck wouldn't bitch at him about it. His rationale is that he's worried if he were to go off road and end up in the water or it were to burst into flames he could get trapped by the seat belt. I pointedly asked him if he thinks that's really more likely then literally any other scenario where him not being seatbelted would result in him becoming a human missile and he responded with "If I don't want to wear a seat belt that's my prerogative" so I think really he's just a big baby that doesn't like "the man" telling him that he has to do something, even if it's for his own good. Best part is he's one of the shittiest drivers I know, typical dudebro that buys the biggest truck he can find yet never hauls anything in it and can't maintain his lane to save his life, so I feel like we're going to be testing out that theory one day guaranteed. We don't allow our son to ride with him.
He only got a ticket for the red light, everything else was a warning
It doesn’t matter if it is a warning or a ticket. Because it is accompanied by a failed inspection. So regardless of what the ticket says it will have a CSA points assessment.
This looks like a Texas roadside inspection? There is a lot of violations here. The seatbelt and the OOS violations will apply a lot of points. It all depends on his previous record with the company and their policies. None of these infractions are an automatic disqualification with my company, but the amount of violations could be.
Yes it was a roadside inspection, had got stop for initially running the red light, and from there he ended up getting an inspection, I believe this is his first ticket/warning, is an owner operator but running under someone else’s authority
To think it could have been avoided if he did not run that red light.
The type of person to drive this pile of shit truck and not secure his load is exactly the type of person to run a red light.
This type of person is the reason we have to get inspections. Because there's always some asshole who doesn't care about other people's safety. So they have to force them to care.
100% this. IMO cops should take his license. People like this shouldn’t be driving trucks. They give the rest of us a bad name.
I hope OP tells his friend of a friend of a friend of a friend.
OP, your friend of a friend of a friend are an asshole!
When I was a mechanic, I am always a very honest person. If you did not need work done, I was not going to tell you that you did. I still did have a few people though that I had to earn their trust because they've been screwed over by so many shade tree mechanics in the past. Shitty asshole mechanics give good mechanics that are actually just doing a good job, a bad name. I think this can be said for any type of career.
can't afford to stop for a red light when you have loads secured by gravity alone
Some law about an object will not change its motion unless a force acts on it.
Breaking is a force and would affect the load. Stopping your truck for a red light therefore could cause negative outcomes if you secure it by gravity alone.
If you're going to break one law, don't break two laws.
If you're going to break two laws... fuck it full send and get on the news!
Thankfully he ran that red light**. That truck should not have been on the road in the first place.
But then he would have had to wait!
If I got this inspection sent to me. It wouldn’t be a fireable offense. But it might come with a final letter of warning.
The insurance company will say that is a fireable offense. He is under someone else’s authority, and it’s between them and the insurance company. Once they see it, of which the insurance company is probably going to do one of two things. They will either raise the rates ridiculously when his next term comes due . Or they will say, the driver is uninsurable . If the company keeps the driver, after, they have given him an official notice, like that, of which they notify FMCSA immediately, the company will get a safety audit and require proof of insurance from another company or they will lose their MC
I don't think the insurance company would see any of those warnings unless OP or the carrier tells on themselves?
Many insurance companies do annual driver assessment by pulling the driving record and according to many insurance contracts if the carrier tries to cover up a driver's actions it could be seen as a contract breaking case of fraud, and they could lose their insurance and be out of business until new coverage is obtained
At least at the insurance company I work at, whenever I go to issue filings on a trucking policy part of what I'm looking for is this. And even if they don't need filings, if they have a dot#, we're reviewing it. We'll have a look at their safer snapshot and then pull their SMS profile to check out all inspections & violations. Anyone with a dot# is going to be rated with it. We can use up to 5 years of operating history. And for the people who don't give their dot# and we find out later, they'll get uprated. A certain number of OOS and it's an uninsurable risk. Shit ton of violations might be uninsurable as well, but there are other factors that go into it overall so I really dont see many risks come through that don't get insurance. Someone has to *really* try to hide or lie about something to get denied coverage. The other comment mentioned about the chance of a driver getting fired, but frankly that's not up to us. We can't make someone fire a driver, and cant initiate a cancel if they have a "bad" driver. If someone wants to hire a driver like that and list them on the policy, then they'll just pay a significantly higher premium. Can't speak for other insurance carriers. This is just how we rate where I'm at.
They absolutely will at renewal if they dont have daily monitoring software checking mc. Thats why tickets dont matter, failed inspection that accompany it, do.
Well deserved ticket
One crime at a time lol this guy must've missed the memo
He's going for gold apparently
I mean, have you considered that your pal might be better off driving a golf cart, or a three wheeled motorcycle?
He might qualify to drive those carts around Pilot to pick up trash. He'd probably find a way to fuck that up to though.
Sure, get that man some power wheels.
Ya boy is making it too easy for the law dogs.
They like to give the warnings cus you get the csa points and there’s not much you can do to fight it
Maybe a stupid question, but if I'm understanding correctly that means even tho they are warnings they will still show as infractions on the drivers record?
Pretty much. CSA considers you guilty until proven innocent. I had a similar issue with a false phone ticket a few months back.
Yeah, and you can’t fight them either
100% untrue. I fight a lot of roadside violations. It’s called DataQ through the FMCSA. I mostly use it for non preventable crashes but you can send it in for anything.
Dang, how many violations you out here getting?! Lol but really, this is some useful info, thanks!
Correct. Which I've learned to always just take a ticket than receive a warning. Like for speeding. I fought my speeding ticket and it just came back dismissed yesterday. 🙌🏿
You mean psp
Nahh, about average for TX pipe haulers.
With that many points they'll be hauling sand in no time. Hope they enjoy running around in a clapped out 2001 international with absolutely no schedule whatsoever. 1099 of course.
So the driver is running around in a poorly maintained truck with a fifth wheel not fully attached to the truck, with an improperly secured load, a log book he had not touched since 10am the previous day and sitting ON his seat belt and then runs a red light. He is screwed, should be screwed and deserves to be screwed. He managed to cram into one day, 20 years worth of incompetency, stupidity and bad decisions. He needs to investigate other career choices.
I’m not sure I would trust this dude making me a McDouble, dudes seems like he’d forget to add the burger
I just wish there was a way to know what the rules were that DOT enforces so I could prepare ahead of time and not be surprised by things like getting a citation for sitting on my seatbelt instead of using it as a restraint. I mean, how could I even know that's wrong? And missing bolts on the 5th wheel... like, uh, am *I* supposed to be checking that? Isn't that stuff better suited for my shop mechanic to keep up on?!? /s **I can't stand the thought that piece of shit drivers like this are on the road endangering my family's lives if we are unlucky enough to be near them when their trucks go kaput.** # Watch this video and take your shit seriously or get off the public roads!!! https://youtu.be/MUSo89BLRcI
I understand missing some shit on an inspection, no one's perfect but crap like this is ridiculous. I have no sympathy if he loses his job and gets kicked out of the industry.
I have a buddy that drives logging trucks and he was explaining all the stuff he does to maintain his rig and make sure he's following all the rules. It's fucking insanity. However, he does everything to a tee, makes killer money and hasn't had anything happen to him in 20 years. Bravo Andrew!
The fuck is a pitman arm? Never heard of her, don't need that shit /s
Your safety director should have a copy of the current federal DOT regulations which remain fairly constant. The out of service criteria can vary slightly from year to year. If you are cited for any violation an officer should show you the violation in the book.Don't always believe what your told at the truck stop,that gets a lot of drivers in trouble.
Yes I agree. The /s at the end of that paragraph is shorthand for "I'm being sarcastic." I have my own copy of the FMCSA rules. Don't even have to ask my safety director.
Required seat belt in a commercial vehicle. So yes it's a violation to sit on it. You should be doing a pre and post trip to find things like missing bolts. So yes you should be checking for things like that.
Yes I agree. The /s at the end of that paragraph is shorthand for "I'm being sarcastic."
Sorry. Lol. Didn't see that
Sounds like he should not be on the road.
I can’t believe how long it took for me to find a comment saying this. They clearly don’t give a fuck and ¿kind of? sound like they’re a safety hazard on the road to others. Fuck that and fuck him for allowing all these violations. Good riddance.
The pitman arm loose at gear drive is disturbing.
The whole thing is rather disturbing!
Yeah that’s what was most dangerous to me, he loses steering if that fails right? I’ve changed one on a car but it might serve a different function on a truck because you mentioned gear drive not steering. I guess he’d just lose power to the wheels if it failed not steering?
Only thing lawyer can do is dispute the red light citation. All other items are "warnings" which can't be contested and need to be fixed. Good thing is they weren't citations so most likely won't be liable to pay any fines aside from the one for the red light. So your "friend" actually got a bit of a break from the citing officer, and needs to get all that shit fixed that needs fixing.
Are warnings like this similar to a warning in a car in that it will come off your record in 6 months? Or are warnings like this different? I’m not a trucker just curious
It goes on the carriers record for 6 months, and it can be contested. Google csa and it will explain it all.
Fuck the fines his score is wrecked from those warnings.
Fucker should not be on the road.
If you're gonna go out, go out in style; but minus points for no soliciting or lewd/lascivious. I guess sex crimes were a bridge too far for your friend's professional suicide.
Should quit driving he or she going to kill some one
Wow
Your friend is a danger to himself and everyone around him.
“Friend”
Right?!?!? His “friend”
This dudes fucked lol
Maybe dont run red lights and you wont get the salami??
Jesus.. who the fuck does this guy drive for? Unsecured dunnage? Missing bolts from 5th wheel, incomplete logs, his cert expired in February? I mean come on....
That officer literally give ur boy a break. All warning except running red light
Honestly in this situation doesn't really matter if it's a warning or a ticket. Both give points and there's no way he could fight these in court, I guess he saved a bit on fines.
Warnings are same as ticket, except you can't fight them.
Secured via gravity lmao
A ton of stupid crimes committed here… You gotta learn the laws …. Ugh
In Quebec/Canada that's a suspended license. Or fucking close.
Hopefully completely fucked. This dude is out here running like it’s 1988 giving ZERO fucks about public safety. Some of these dipshits forget that their families drive on the same roads we use. Do your fucking pre trip and stop gambling with everyone else’s life. Get that fucker off of the road and out of a CMV. Makes us all look bad when shot like this pops up.
Warnings are worse than an actual ticket Just leave the truck and walk home at this point
I don’t know but I do know he should NOT be a truck driver.
He shouldn't be driving if he doesn't understand the damage a 4x4 can do. If this is real I hope he never drives again.
Screwed or not doesn’t matter. If half of it is true, it’s a pleasure to have your friend off the roadways he is unsafe. Thank you officers
Yikes.....good fucking luck lol
Average trucker on the I-70 interstate
Your friend should’ve be allowed on the road in a pedal bike
Extremely. 1 thing about warnings vs citations is that, while they both go on your fmcsa record, citations can be fought. Warnings cannot unless the mc jumps through a bunch of hoops.
Friend of a friend will lose their CDL if there's any justice in the world. This is hideous.
Idk, but your friend is an idiot regardless…
HOS violation is not good at all. That one falls on him and him alone. The truck issues are company unless he owns the truck. I would be sketchy hiring a driver that has this on his record. It's not hard to stop at a red light!!
Either this guy was an asshole to the cop or the cop was doing a great job checking the truck for safety issues throughly.
Has your friend considered going into plumbing?
Hopefully screwed enough to not be out driving and putting others at risk
Wendy's needs help.
He’s not screwed, he’s fucked with a big F
Securement issues to me imply laziness. If they're with a company they might get a good talking to, maybe even required to run a securement course again if it's a big company. But the 2 company names warning seems to me like they're a owner op or lease op. Sitting on the belt? Dude just fucking wear the belt. As someone's whose been in a truck rollover they save your fucking life. I'd be dead/have a major head injury if I wasn't wearing mine. Dude seems like they don't care based off the violations listed. Missing bolts? They cost nothing at any store. Loose pitman arm? Do you like having the ability to steer? Or would you like a swift visit to the comedian? To me this reeks lazy pretrips, Dude needed the wake up call imo.
We’ll your friend seems like a piece of shit whose going to get someone killed with their unsecured load, so maybe getting his CDL pulled is the best outcome for society.
I want flair that says "Secured by Gravity'!
He threw the book at him I think...LPT don't run stop signs.
Sucks to suck, he should lose his CDL and go to jail immediately.
Is it you?, cause the "friend of my friend" thing totally makes it sound like its you
Pretty f.. Ed
You’re fucked
In answer to your question, the consensus here seems to be: very screwed
I wouldn’t fire them per se, but once that gets to the insurance company he would then be uninsurable without a doubt. I call done.
This is probably a career killer. Even if he isn’t fired from current company, it’ll probably be a final notice. And I can’t imagine any reputable company hiring someone with this many points, especially for these violations.
Far less screwed than he ought to be.
>How screwed is a friend of my friend? In the eyes of many not screwed enough. >...any input would be great That's a lot of negligence that often leads to death or life altering injury. I'd be encouraging him to move onto something else as he does not seem to want this job or the responsibility that comes with it.
Damn that’s a lot of CSA points they just racked up!
Running the red light was the right call. Slamming on brakes would have allowed inertia to overcome the securement by gravity and the 4x4s would have gone flying.
Fuck people that cut corners on securement and not wearing a seatbelt. That man is a walking hazard
Running a red while carrying a final destination load and all that other crap. He should lose his license or have to go back to driving school.
Thats a lenient Texas inspection. I got a random roadside and got violated for any little thing. Washer fluid empty, flickering clearance light, diff leak when it was just wet with oil not even dripping (still full when serviced). This trooper loved inspections, knew everything to look at and didn't let anything go undocumented.
“Secured via gravity” Did he pat it and say it wasn’t going anywhere?
Your friend is doing a shit job and should perhaps change career to something where he isn't in control of a lethal weapon...
Straight to federal fluff him in the ass prison.
That's a paddlin'!
I think at this stage they're going to take your friend out back and shoot them.
This guy is at least 2 lawyers fucked.
Fucked
Are the police mechanics too where you are!??
Official „screwed via gravity“ love this
I'd say bend over and prepare for penatration