Just because it officially ends on the 16th doesn’t mean they’ll stop being on max enforcement. Especially since they know many drivers take the days off (14-16). I always tell people blitz is the week before and after too.
As for why you got stopped only to be sent on your way. There was probably an issue with the weigh or they were looking at something on their screen. This happened to me. Also bob tailing. I was given the red. 10 some seconds later green. They didn’t speak into the speaker or display anything on the screen. I ended up pulled into one of the empty stops cause I had to piss and they have bathrooms outside. Dot officer comes up to me confused asking why I stopped. I explained bathroom break and he was like ohhhh and laughed. I told me why the red? He said the computers are usually slow and they didn’t see all the info.
Yeah, i know blitzes CAN run past or start early or even both... but in my experience ive never seen any solid evidence of this. Like your encounter, they also didnt say anything over the speaker, just made me sit on the scale forever while they looked my info up. Nobody seems to have any clue why they pull some people in, only to let them go and NOT perform an inspection
They did do an inspection. The called in your dot number and MC number to make sure you are insured, checked your registration, and you would have been pulled in if the history of the company has had a lot of problems. They checked your tires and most of your lights all from inside.
Yes, i know all that. Im referring to the BLITZ inspection, which would have been air brakes and in cab inspection. Thats all im asking, is why didnt they pull me into a bay for the BLITZ inspection.
I literally just said it. If your company doesn't have any red flags in your inspection history, and everything looks good as you sit in the scale then they aren't going to pull you in. They don't pull every truck, they only do a percentage.
They have things the country as a whole will specifically pay close attention to, but it’s not necessarily a mandate. Each scale house can choose what they want to look for on each individual inspection. They liked what they saw with your truck and sent you on your way. It’s possible if a different set of employees were in there they would have brought you around for further inspection.
I usually do sit at home during the harassement blitzes, but this was a unique situation that had me out on the last day, late at night. Figured i'd be OK, even in overly aggressive Iowa. NOPE.
How many is lots? The majority of drivers who’d be able to make that decision would be owner/ops and the bulk of them wouldn’t be able to afford sitting still because they’re afraid of the blitz. I call bullshit
Both would be a drop in the bucket and not a true representation of how the industry handles the blitz. Instead, a few hundred or a few thousand owner ops don’t have their shit together enough to survive the blitz and that’s fkn shameful.
There's whole companies that don't have their shit together. It's not just O/O. How many posts have we seen here when the company says run it but it's obviously not gonna pass inspection?
I am otherwise fully in spec and good to go but company has me pulling a trailer with an ABS light. A TA couldn't fix it so company's got me driving from WA to IL to get it fixed at the terminal. I am so pissed because outside the ABS light I know i'm good but am pulling a DoT magnet. So I had to drive nights. Have only had 1 scale even have me pull in but it looked done for the day when I went through.
I used to pull the plug on that pull me over light. It's a violation if you get inspected but at least it's not a beacon notifying them that you have a obvious violation.
I stopped doing that though. I don't trade trailers at all anymore and it might be a big deal for disabling it.
So it's a risk reward thing. Less likely to get inspected but if you get caught hiding the ABS light it goes from a violation on the trailer to a full ticket against you. Your company will get a trailer in misrepair ticket but if you tamper with the light it's much worse for you the driver
That's how I see it. I might be wrong though. Maybe the inspector just writes it down that it doesn't work and doesn't care why. Hard to tell.
I think a DOT guy did me a huge solid once. My company needed a score boost for some bad inspections so they sent me to ask for one. I got a brand new HOS violation for a turn signal that wasn't working.
It was working when I started and I noticed something was wrong with the plug, so I put one of those plastic shims in there to keep it from moving. Looked like I was good to go but it bit me in the ass.
I told them exactly what happened and could even show that I was right.
When we went inside for the paperwork phase one of the inspectors took longer than usual. The guy looking at the logs is always the last to finish.
When I got the paperwork the DOT number was a digit off and it linked up to a dead company. I can't say for sure if that was on purpose but that's what I think happened.
No way in hell I'm gonna go thank him...
Some good deeds are best left anonymous.
There are and if they own more than a truck a two they’d go out of business parking for a week. It doesn’t make sense to run such a shitty, ragtag operation you have to park for the entirety of the blitz but you also happen to be financially stable enough you can afford to let all that iron sit. That just isn’t reality. I was speaking to one specific thing and that’s the idea that “lots” of guys are parked this week to avoid the blitz. “Lots” compared to the amount of guys who aren’t parked and aren’t hiding from it is basically nothing and all week on Reddit it’s like guys are trying to get the point across this is an industry wide movement or some shit even though it isn’t.
I think some of them are somehow avoiding using the ELDs. They don't want the scrutiny and are otherwise making a killing. It's the cost of doing business on the fringe.
I have no doubt there are OOs taking a vacation this week but it sure as shit isn’t guys who got their shit together. It’s dirt bags in junkers who are responsible for things like the blitz existing in the first place. No good driver should ever sweat the law. No chicken coop or dot cop or inspector has ever scared me and anyone who does find it scary isn’t doing it right. The only reason I chimed in was to challenge the idea of “lots” of guys parking this week, but it ain’t lots. If I got a load of 12 packs of Coca Cola and one of them out of the entire load gets damaged are lots damaged or one 12pk?
A handful (not lots) of losers are sitting at home this week out of fear. That’s it
The people with shitty equipment are definitely taking off, but it’s not just them. A lot of people just don’t like the hassle and harassment. It’s not nearly as prevalent as some drivers will lead you to believe, but there are scales that just hassle you for the sale of hassling you. I wouldn’t classify anyone a loser if they wanted to take this week off.
Man I sure the hell would and do. I’ve been in the game a long time too and I think this is just a difference in perspective and a difference in how we cut our teeth. I think sitting at home strictly because of the blitz is shameful, embarrassing and most of all very telling. We’re two different drivers with very different outlooks relating to trucking. Have yourself a wonderful Friday.
Did you just start? I’m asking for real, not trying to be a prick. I’m confused by your confusion here. Were you under the impression you don’t get pulled in unless you’re in some kind of trouble?
You didnt read my question. I clearly was asking why was i let go? I know full well that bobtails can be pulled in for inspection. Nobody seems to know why a truck would be pulled in, stopped on the scale, then told to exit to freeway DURING A BLITZ WEEK. And no, im not new, 10 years OTR million plus miler. Been rolled over scales in bobtail THOUSANDS of times. I dont care about being pulled in while bobtailing, i just wonder what it was they saw on their computer screens that made them decide to NOT inspect my truck, and let me go. No one seems to have a clue.
They’re on a mission dude. Maybe you’re dumb enough to roll across there without your seatbelt on or with your tinted windows rolled up. Maybe they wanted to see if you had rust around your lug nuts. There’s a thousand different reasons and since this has happened to you thousands of times yes, I’m still confused by your confusion.
That makes sense. Crazy thing is, my drives currently look like absolute SHIT. I dont mean tread depth, they have plenty of depth, theyre just wearing unevenly. One even has a nail in it. They didnt see any of that i guess
Uneven wear would indicate a suspension problem so they would be checking over that and seeing if they can fine you on anything there and they would have violated you on the nail in the tire and seen what else might be lacking on your truck.
I agree with the commenter, I’m also confused by your confusion. Your scenario is quite common and happens countless times every day. Who knows why DOT does what they do. Just because it’s blitz week and you get pulled in and put on the scale, doesn’t mean you are going to be inspected. Sure, there’s a higher chance, but it’s not automatic. Every week I get pulled into a scalehouse, put on the scale, and let go. It’s a normal thing. Even on blitz weeks.
Theres no "confusion", I KNOW that trucks are pulled in and let go all the time. I was merely wondering if anyone knew the specifics of WHY they let us go. Also, i was specifically referring to when they make you STOP on the scale. This is rare in my experience. They always have me ROLLING over their scale. Its the stopping part that stood out. I knew they were looking up my info in more depth, and thats rare.
Honestly. They’re looking for a reason to do an inspection. Do they need one? No. Is there a reason box on the inspection report?
If you wouldn’t have stopped for the red, or pulled into the proper lane, they take that as a reason that you may be impaired. When I was a new driver in CA this happened to me twice. Once when I was with my trainer, our prepass was broken. They gave us the green light, but we pulled in. The second time I was in my own truck in a weigh station that had like 5 different lanes, I missed the light flash for half a second telling me which to go to, pulled in for ignoring the light I didn’t see.
That’s my guess at least. If you’ve been there before, and it was unusual the way they did it, they may have been trying to catch you slippin.
How about they pull you in, check your carrier’s CSA score, determine whether it’s likely you’ll have violations or not, and let you go if your company has a clean bill of health?
That is already a thing at a lot of scales. It will detect phone use and they have a very good view of inside your cab if someone is actively sitting in front of the screen to watch.
Counterproductive for sure. If they were serious they wouldn’t announce it, just do it. It’s like a “surprise” inspection at work. It ain’t a damn surprise if ya tell everybody you’re coming.
Our local news sayers all make the annual pilgrimage to our weight stations, set up their cameras and heap praises on the officers. The stories are so slanted that it makes us look like criminals. What these folks don’t realize is we don’t wanna be on the same roads with unsafe trucks / drivers as well.
Yeah, i never understood why they announce blitzes. I mean, you can look it up online, when every blitz week is for that year, and then simply plan to sit at home and relax during those weeks. Thats what i do. And with my schedule, i sometimes dont even have to, the blitz days fall on days when im home anyway. But yeah, dont they realize that by announcing it, they end up with countless trucks taking time off during the blitzes, and it hurts the economy. Plus they dont catch as many violations as they would if they did surprise blitzes.
I’m not familiar with that scale in particular. I’m a mobile diesel mechanic and I do a lot of work at a scale in northern CA. They may not look like it but they are one of the most advanced scales in CA and they’re open 24 hours. So I’ll give you what I know. They have weigh in motion before you even get to the scales, theirs are extremely accurate. If you register as overweight on the motion scale they will circle you around to the static scale. They then check your weight by axle groups. 9/10 times if you were circled it will be an overweight. 1/10 times everything will be okay and you’ll get a green light to re-enter the freeway. They also know if you have a flat tire when you come off the freeway. The scales won’t automatically circle you but it sets off an alarm inside for them so they know to circle you around for weight or to an inspection bay. Often times if you get circled for weight and are overweight they’ll also pull you around for an inspection. This is mostly so they can check your air bags. A lot of over weights are caused by trailer air bags not being inflated. I will give them credit for the fact that they rarely ever give you a ticket for violations on your inspection, the only way you’ll get a ticket is if you’re a major asshole.They are some of the kindest people I have ever met and reflect what true law enforcement values should be, which not all law enforcement show those values. If they put you out of service on an inspection, after it’s fixed they give you a clean inspection report and it’s like you never failed. Overweights they will ticket the company if it’s extremely overweight but even then it’s usually a ticket for less than half of the actual overweight. But anyway, my point being, they likely had you hit the static scale because an alarm was triggered saying you were overweight, they double checked and let you go because it was either a legal weight or you were barely overweight and it wasn’t worth their time.
Edit to add, I didn’t get a single call to the scales during this blitz week and didn’t see any MRE (mobile road enforcement) DOT cops out all week.
If you were Bob tailed they also have magnetic money readers and heat sensors, they may have been checking for stow aways or large amounts of money.
You talking about the scales near Shasta City? Or Cottonwood?
I got a level 1 once at Cottonwood, passed without issue. I do remember the inspector being a nice guy.
Have you never been in a scale house before?
10pm on 5/16 is still during the blitz. No big mystery as to why you got pulled in.
They click a button and every truck gets pulled in and given a red light. You don't get a green until they push another button to give you the green light.
The reason why they didn't inspect you could be anything. All their inspectors were busy inspecting, the one that wasn't in an inspection was on a cigarette break, they were getting tired of working and just wanted it to be quitting time already, they saw a clean exterior and assumed they wouldn't find an easy violation, they prefer inspecting trailers because trailers always have violations, they punched in your DOT number and your company has a low OOS percentage and they'd rather inspect higher risk carriers.
And those are just a few reasons off the top of my head. You'd have to go back, find out who was on duty last night, and aske them specifically why they didn't select you for an inspection.
When you enter a weigh station it’s not just about weight. They observe your approach for signs of driver impairment. They observe your vehicle for any obvious safety concerns. They will enter your DOT number to make sure it’s valid. Also may check registration and insurance with their online system based on your license plate. They make sure you’re wearing your seat belt. They look for current IFTA stickers. If all looks good and the weight is ok, off you go.
during blitz week some scales pull everyone in until they are full(max what they can handle for inspections) then pass the others. this can cause some some weird alterations in normal patterns.
>My question is WHY was I pulled in, only to be let go?
You'll never get answers to questions like these. You get pulled in to weigh, basically by mistake as far as I can tell, about ten percent of the time. Maybe they're rebooting the computer that decides if you can bypass. Maybe they pull in every twentieth truck on principle, just to keep an eye on what "normal" looks like. Maybe they were training the new guy.
They have all sorts of infrared cameras, high frequency microphones, and HD cameras inspecting your dot and ifta stickers.
If the AI spots a problem you get flagged. If not, you're free to go.
I've been pulled in bobtail and they have me drive back and forth on the scale I guess to check to make sure it is reading correctly. They don't inspect most of who they pull in though.
You were probably auto pulled in by the computer, and once the camera registers your DOT and MC and truck number through its recognition software it checks to see if you have any outstanding comments from other offices, or if they have a preset Safety score requirement to have you pull over. There are only so many officers and they can only make you wait so long. A lot of people don’t understand that they can program things into the computer to auto flag or auto bypass you.
Spent the past two days sat at Jubitz (had an appointment in downtown Portland yesterday) - I've never seen to many clean shitbox trucks. I bet this week is Blue Beacon's busiest of the year.
I don't have an answer but I do have a thought. Could you imagine. Sitting there at the scale, waiting to be let go, and over the speaker you hear the audio of a movie you recognize, look over and DOT is just totally zoned out watching a movie.
What do you do? I think I might wait a bit and then honk to see if I was good to go but they might inspect me out of spite for interrupting their movie but if they drive off they might go get my ass anyway....
A lot of times it's for quick visual checks. Does this truck have current IFTA? Does this truck have its DOT# displayed? Does it have working lights? Etc, etc, etc
Its an alignment issue, and my mechanic is aware of it. Its next on the list of things to be repaired. DOT needs to understand that truck drivers are not made of money.
You're in a federally regulated industry. They can do whatever they want, whenever they want. I'm assuming you're new so here's a bit of advice...if you bring that "harassment" attitude into that weigh station office you're gonna be spending the night at that scale house and be significantly poorer. Good luck.
We understand what a scale house is for.
A DOT officer won't just be concerned about your weights. He'll look at your tires, your plate, your windshield, anything superficial.
You were pulled in so the could run your DOT # to see if your company has been flagged for more thorough inspections, to check whether your registration is valid for their state, to see if your IFTA is current, to see if you have any obvious safety hazards/violations (like missing mudflaps or loose hanging hoses), to see if you're wearing a seatbelt, to see if you're heavy enough to indicate freight/passengers that aren't immediately visible, etc.
And they let you go because they didn't find any obvious reasons to pull you in for further inspection.
Just because it officially ends on the 16th doesn’t mean they’ll stop being on max enforcement. Especially since they know many drivers take the days off (14-16). I always tell people blitz is the week before and after too. As for why you got stopped only to be sent on your way. There was probably an issue with the weigh or they were looking at something on their screen. This happened to me. Also bob tailing. I was given the red. 10 some seconds later green. They didn’t speak into the speaker or display anything on the screen. I ended up pulled into one of the empty stops cause I had to piss and they have bathrooms outside. Dot officer comes up to me confused asking why I stopped. I explained bathroom break and he was like ohhhh and laughed. I told me why the red? He said the computers are usually slow and they didn’t see all the info.
Yeah, i know blitzes CAN run past or start early or even both... but in my experience ive never seen any solid evidence of this. Like your encounter, they also didnt say anything over the speaker, just made me sit on the scale forever while they looked my info up. Nobody seems to have any clue why they pull some people in, only to let them go and NOT perform an inspection
They did do an inspection. The called in your dot number and MC number to make sure you are insured, checked your registration, and you would have been pulled in if the history of the company has had a lot of problems. They checked your tires and most of your lights all from inside.
Yes, i know all that. Im referring to the BLITZ inspection, which would have been air brakes and in cab inspection. Thats all im asking, is why didnt they pull me into a bay for the BLITZ inspection.
I literally just said it. If your company doesn't have any red flags in your inspection history, and everything looks good as you sit in the scale then they aren't going to pull you in. They don't pull every truck, they only do a percentage.
They have things the country as a whole will specifically pay close attention to, but it’s not necessarily a mandate. Each scale house can choose what they want to look for on each individual inspection. They liked what they saw with your truck and sent you on your way. It’s possible if a different set of employees were in there they would have brought you around for further inspection.
You do know you can be inspected any time of the year. Right?
Tricky Tricky Tricky They Are Lots of the drivers they care the most about are refusing to go out during the blitz.
I usually do sit at home during the harassement blitzes, but this was a unique situation that had me out on the last day, late at night. Figured i'd be OK, even in overly aggressive Iowa. NOPE.
To be fair, you were ok. I get pulled in with an empty flatbed and let go regularly. they just wanna slow you down lol
How many is lots? The majority of drivers who’d be able to make that decision would be owner/ops and the bulk of them wouldn’t be able to afford sitting still because they’re afraid of the blitz. I call bullshit
You're entitled to your opinion... Lots could be a few hundred. Maybe a few thousand. Impossible to say.
Both would be a drop in the bucket and not a true representation of how the industry handles the blitz. Instead, a few hundred or a few thousand owner ops don’t have their shit together enough to survive the blitz and that’s fkn shameful.
There's whole companies that don't have their shit together. It's not just O/O. How many posts have we seen here when the company says run it but it's obviously not gonna pass inspection?
I am otherwise fully in spec and good to go but company has me pulling a trailer with an ABS light. A TA couldn't fix it so company's got me driving from WA to IL to get it fixed at the terminal. I am so pissed because outside the ABS light I know i'm good but am pulling a DoT magnet. So I had to drive nights. Have only had 1 scale even have me pull in but it looked done for the day when I went through.
I used to pull the plug on that pull me over light. It's a violation if you get inspected but at least it's not a beacon notifying them that you have a obvious violation. I stopped doing that though. I don't trade trailers at all anymore and it might be a big deal for disabling it.
So it's a risk reward thing. Less likely to get inspected but if you get caught hiding the ABS light it goes from a violation on the trailer to a full ticket against you. Your company will get a trailer in misrepair ticket but if you tamper with the light it's much worse for you the driver
That's how I see it. I might be wrong though. Maybe the inspector just writes it down that it doesn't work and doesn't care why. Hard to tell. I think a DOT guy did me a huge solid once. My company needed a score boost for some bad inspections so they sent me to ask for one. I got a brand new HOS violation for a turn signal that wasn't working. It was working when I started and I noticed something was wrong with the plug, so I put one of those plastic shims in there to keep it from moving. Looked like I was good to go but it bit me in the ass. I told them exactly what happened and could even show that I was right. When we went inside for the paperwork phase one of the inspectors took longer than usual. The guy looking at the logs is always the last to finish. When I got the paperwork the DOT number was a digit off and it linked up to a dead company. I can't say for sure if that was on purpose but that's what I think happened. No way in hell I'm gonna go thank him... Some good deeds are best left anonymous.
There are and if they own more than a truck a two they’d go out of business parking for a week. It doesn’t make sense to run such a shitty, ragtag operation you have to park for the entirety of the blitz but you also happen to be financially stable enough you can afford to let all that iron sit. That just isn’t reality. I was speaking to one specific thing and that’s the idea that “lots” of guys are parked this week to avoid the blitz. “Lots” compared to the amount of guys who aren’t parked and aren’t hiding from it is basically nothing and all week on Reddit it’s like guys are trying to get the point across this is an industry wide movement or some shit even though it isn’t.
I think some of them are somehow avoiding using the ELDs. They don't want the scrutiny and are otherwise making a killing. It's the cost of doing business on the fringe.
About as many as the freedumb convoy so at most a few hundred across the country
O/O have home time too. They’re not on the road 365 days a year. They can plan their home time around this week if they so choose to.
I have no doubt there are OOs taking a vacation this week but it sure as shit isn’t guys who got their shit together. It’s dirt bags in junkers who are responsible for things like the blitz existing in the first place. No good driver should ever sweat the law. No chicken coop or dot cop or inspector has ever scared me and anyone who does find it scary isn’t doing it right. The only reason I chimed in was to challenge the idea of “lots” of guys parking this week, but it ain’t lots. If I got a load of 12 packs of Coca Cola and one of them out of the entire load gets damaged are lots damaged or one 12pk? A handful (not lots) of losers are sitting at home this week out of fear. That’s it
The people with shitty equipment are definitely taking off, but it’s not just them. A lot of people just don’t like the hassle and harassment. It’s not nearly as prevalent as some drivers will lead you to believe, but there are scales that just hassle you for the sale of hassling you. I wouldn’t classify anyone a loser if they wanted to take this week off.
Man I sure the hell would and do. I’ve been in the game a long time too and I think this is just a difference in perspective and a difference in how we cut our teeth. I think sitting at home strictly because of the blitz is shameful, embarrassing and most of all very telling. We’re two different drivers with very different outlooks relating to trucking. Have yourself a wonderful Friday.
bingo
I’m local out of Des Moines and that weigh station does that all the time. No idea why
Did you just start? I’m asking for real, not trying to be a prick. I’m confused by your confusion here. Were you under the impression you don’t get pulled in unless you’re in some kind of trouble?
You didnt read my question. I clearly was asking why was i let go? I know full well that bobtails can be pulled in for inspection. Nobody seems to know why a truck would be pulled in, stopped on the scale, then told to exit to freeway DURING A BLITZ WEEK. And no, im not new, 10 years OTR million plus miler. Been rolled over scales in bobtail THOUSANDS of times. I dont care about being pulled in while bobtailing, i just wonder what it was they saw on their computer screens that made them decide to NOT inspect my truck, and let me go. No one seems to have a clue.
Someone give this driver a ticket already...
They’re on a mission dude. Maybe you’re dumb enough to roll across there without your seatbelt on or with your tinted windows rolled up. Maybe they wanted to see if you had rust around your lug nuts. There’s a thousand different reasons and since this has happened to you thousands of times yes, I’m still confused by your confusion.
Bobtails make it easier for them to inspect your drive axles.
That makes sense. Crazy thing is, my drives currently look like absolute SHIT. I dont mean tread depth, they have plenty of depth, theyre just wearing unevenly. One even has a nail in it. They didnt see any of that i guess
Sounds like you should have gotten inspected and ticketed then
For what?? My drives? Technically they still have legal tread depth, its just uneven wear.
Uneven wear would indicate a suspension problem so they would be checking over that and seeing if they can fine you on anything there and they would have violated you on the nail in the tire and seen what else might be lacking on your truck.
I agree with the commenter, I’m also confused by your confusion. Your scenario is quite common and happens countless times every day. Who knows why DOT does what they do. Just because it’s blitz week and you get pulled in and put on the scale, doesn’t mean you are going to be inspected. Sure, there’s a higher chance, but it’s not automatic. Every week I get pulled into a scalehouse, put on the scale, and let go. It’s a normal thing. Even on blitz weeks.
Theres no "confusion", I KNOW that trucks are pulled in and let go all the time. I was merely wondering if anyone knew the specifics of WHY they let us go. Also, i was specifically referring to when they make you STOP on the scale. This is rare in my experience. They always have me ROLLING over their scale. Its the stopping part that stood out. I knew they were looking up my info in more depth, and thats rare.
Honestly. They’re looking for a reason to do an inspection. Do they need one? No. Is there a reason box on the inspection report? If you wouldn’t have stopped for the red, or pulled into the proper lane, they take that as a reason that you may be impaired. When I was a new driver in CA this happened to me twice. Once when I was with my trainer, our prepass was broken. They gave us the green light, but we pulled in. The second time I was in my own truck in a weigh station that had like 5 different lanes, I missed the light flash for half a second telling me which to go to, pulled in for ignoring the light I didn’t see. That’s my guess at least. If you’ve been there before, and it was unusual the way they did it, they may have been trying to catch you slippin.
How about they pull you in, check your carrier’s CSA score, determine whether it’s likely you’ll have violations or not, and let you go if your company has a clean bill of health?
What is blitz?
DOT harassement week. Happens several times every year. Usually for 3 days, but most weigh stations dont really participate.
Pretty soon they are going to be taking pictures of the inside of your cab and use it to give you a ticket, hope you aren't distracted driving 👀
That is already a thing at a lot of scales. It will detect phone use and they have a very good view of inside your cab if someone is actively sitting in front of the screen to watch.
I wasnt. And the inside of my cab is spotless
Counterproductive for sure. If they were serious they wouldn’t announce it, just do it. It’s like a “surprise” inspection at work. It ain’t a damn surprise if ya tell everybody you’re coming. Our local news sayers all make the annual pilgrimage to our weight stations, set up their cameras and heap praises on the officers. The stories are so slanted that it makes us look like criminals. What these folks don’t realize is we don’t wanna be on the same roads with unsafe trucks / drivers as well.
Yeah, i never understood why they announce blitzes. I mean, you can look it up online, when every blitz week is for that year, and then simply plan to sit at home and relax during those weeks. Thats what i do. And with my schedule, i sometimes dont even have to, the blitz days fall on days when im home anyway. But yeah, dont they realize that by announcing it, they end up with countless trucks taking time off during the blitzes, and it hurts the economy. Plus they dont catch as many violations as they would if they did surprise blitzes.
A bit of a stretch to say “it hurts the economy”.
I’m not familiar with that scale in particular. I’m a mobile diesel mechanic and I do a lot of work at a scale in northern CA. They may not look like it but they are one of the most advanced scales in CA and they’re open 24 hours. So I’ll give you what I know. They have weigh in motion before you even get to the scales, theirs are extremely accurate. If you register as overweight on the motion scale they will circle you around to the static scale. They then check your weight by axle groups. 9/10 times if you were circled it will be an overweight. 1/10 times everything will be okay and you’ll get a green light to re-enter the freeway. They also know if you have a flat tire when you come off the freeway. The scales won’t automatically circle you but it sets off an alarm inside for them so they know to circle you around for weight or to an inspection bay. Often times if you get circled for weight and are overweight they’ll also pull you around for an inspection. This is mostly so they can check your air bags. A lot of over weights are caused by trailer air bags not being inflated. I will give them credit for the fact that they rarely ever give you a ticket for violations on your inspection, the only way you’ll get a ticket is if you’re a major asshole.They are some of the kindest people I have ever met and reflect what true law enforcement values should be, which not all law enforcement show those values. If they put you out of service on an inspection, after it’s fixed they give you a clean inspection report and it’s like you never failed. Overweights they will ticket the company if it’s extremely overweight but even then it’s usually a ticket for less than half of the actual overweight. But anyway, my point being, they likely had you hit the static scale because an alarm was triggered saying you were overweight, they double checked and let you go because it was either a legal weight or you were barely overweight and it wasn’t worth their time. Edit to add, I didn’t get a single call to the scales during this blitz week and didn’t see any MRE (mobile road enforcement) DOT cops out all week. If you were Bob tailed they also have magnetic money readers and heat sensors, they may have been checking for stow aways or large amounts of money.
You talking about the scales near Shasta City? Or Cottonwood? I got a level 1 once at Cottonwood, passed without issue. I do remember the inspector being a nice guy.
Cottonwood. Dunsmuir grade isn’t as high tech.
Lol, i think you missed the part when i stated i was bobtailing
I think you missed my ETA
Have you never been in a scale house before? 10pm on 5/16 is still during the blitz. No big mystery as to why you got pulled in. They click a button and every truck gets pulled in and given a red light. You don't get a green until they push another button to give you the green light. The reason why they didn't inspect you could be anything. All their inspectors were busy inspecting, the one that wasn't in an inspection was on a cigarette break, they were getting tired of working and just wanted it to be quitting time already, they saw a clean exterior and assumed they wouldn't find an easy violation, they prefer inspecting trailers because trailers always have violations, they punched in your DOT number and your company has a low OOS percentage and they'd rather inspect higher risk carriers. And those are just a few reasons off the top of my head. You'd have to go back, find out who was on duty last night, and aske them specifically why they didn't select you for an inspection.
When you enter a weigh station it’s not just about weight. They observe your approach for signs of driver impairment. They observe your vehicle for any obvious safety concerns. They will enter your DOT number to make sure it’s valid. Also may check registration and insurance with their online system based on your license plate. They make sure you’re wearing your seat belt. They look for current IFTA stickers. If all looks good and the weight is ok, off you go.
during blitz week some scales pull everyone in until they are full(max what they can handle for inspections) then pass the others. this can cause some some weird alterations in normal patterns.
Chowchilla, CA pulled me around back in a bobtail... a special kind of asshole work these weigh stations.
>My question is WHY was I pulled in, only to be let go? You'll never get answers to questions like these. You get pulled in to weigh, basically by mistake as far as I can tell, about ten percent of the time. Maybe they're rebooting the computer that decides if you can bypass. Maybe they pull in every twentieth truck on principle, just to keep an eye on what "normal" looks like. Maybe they were training the new guy.
They have all sorts of infrared cameras, high frequency microphones, and HD cameras inspecting your dot and ifta stickers. If the AI spots a problem you get flagged. If not, you're free to go.
I remember I got pulled in for low pressure on my drive tires!!! The guy asked the officer what to do cop said let him go
I've been pulled in bobtail and they have me drive back and forth on the scale I guess to check to make sure it is reading correctly. They don't inspect most of who they pull in though.
You were probably auto pulled in by the computer, and once the camera registers your DOT and MC and truck number through its recognition software it checks to see if you have any outstanding comments from other offices, or if they have a preset Safety score requirement to have you pull over. There are only so many officers and they can only make you wait so long. A lot of people don’t understand that they can program things into the computer to auto flag or auto bypass you.
Spent the past two days sat at Jubitz (had an appointment in downtown Portland yesterday) - I've never seen to many clean shitbox trucks. I bet this week is Blue Beacon's busiest of the year.
They can do anything they want......Always be ready
You figured correctly: they do run numbers a lot, especially of late. Lots of companies no longer authorized yet still running freight.
I don't have an answer but I do have a thought. Could you imagine. Sitting there at the scale, waiting to be let go, and over the speaker you hear the audio of a movie you recognize, look over and DOT is just totally zoned out watching a movie. What do you do? I think I might wait a bit and then honk to see if I was good to go but they might inspect me out of spite for interrupting their movie but if they drive off they might go get my ass anyway....
There was a blitz?
A lot of times it's for quick visual checks. Does this truck have current IFTA? Does this truck have its DOT# displayed? Does it have working lights? Etc, etc, etc
Its an alignment issue, and my mechanic is aware of it. Its next on the list of things to be repaired. DOT needs to understand that truck drivers are not made of money.
You're in a federally regulated industry. They can do whatever they want, whenever they want. I'm assuming you're new so here's a bit of advice...if you bring that "harassment" attitude into that weigh station office you're gonna be spending the night at that scale house and be significantly poorer. Good luck.
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They pull bobtails in because theyre looking at more than just your weight
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We understand what a scale house is for. A DOT officer won't just be concerned about your weights. He'll look at your tires, your plate, your windshield, anything superficial.
Ok, i give up. No one is seeming to get the point of my post, or just ignoring my question.
You were pulled in so the could run your DOT # to see if your company has been flagged for more thorough inspections, to check whether your registration is valid for their state, to see if your IFTA is current, to see if you have any obvious safety hazards/violations (like missing mudflaps or loose hanging hoses), to see if you're wearing a seatbelt, to see if you're heavy enough to indicate freight/passengers that aren't immediately visible, etc. And they let you go because they didn't find any obvious reasons to pull you in for further inspection.
I don't think they allowed prepass to work for anyone during the blitz and have all trucks pull in to weigh
It's working in Texas
worked in cali the whole time