DOT Inspection This Week

So everyone is freaking out about these inspections. And I'm curious as to how bad they are? Will they hassle me more at night thinking I'm trying to avoid them... or do they go after the smaller companies more?

I haven't been thru one at all. So I'm nervous

Good question, same here. I actually have no idea if my pretrips are thorough enough. We got a message saying make sure tires, brakes, and lights are all good (including tire pressure), and that you have a blank log book. Speaking of which, I have one I was using during training back in January, that has blank pages. Is that good enough if the QC stops working, or do I need and entire blank book?

Everybody gets so worked up about the blitz every year and it'll wind up causing you undue stress. It's no different than any other level one inspection, it's just done on a grand scale with more personnel and weigh stations being open when they would normally be closed. If you perform your inspection like you should, you won't have much to worry about. Keep your truck clean ex: dash not cluttered, truck isn't trashed and remember that your initial attitude if you get selected will determine everything. You'll always have the "by the book" DOT officer who could write violations on a brand new truck and you'll always have those but if you do the things you should be doing every day, you're less likely to make yourself a target.

Expect less green light and more road side inspection areas. If your running your equipment, legal and your logs you have nothing to worry about. They are paying special attention to tires and brakes this year so what would put you out of service for tires? Cuts showing steel cord, flat spots going across the tred. Less then the minimum tred depth. Bubbles, under inflation. Something logged between a set of tires. Brakes what puts you out of service for brakes? ? ? I would not worry about a thing if you run legal. If your running with with problems then you will have a problem. Remember just because there looking at tires and brakes dose not meen they will be looking for other problems as well. So just do everything 100% and have another safe trip.

Expect less green light and more road side inspection areas. If your running your equipment, legal and your logs you have nothing to worry about. They are paying special attention to tires and brakes this year so what would put you out of service for tires? Cuts showing steel cord, flat spots going across the tred. Less then the minimum tred depth. Bubbles, under inflation. Something logged between a set of tires. Brakes what puts you out of service for brakes? ? ? I would not worry about a thing if you run legal. If your running with with problems then you will have a problem. Remember just because there looking at tires and brakes dose not meen they will be looking for other problems as well. So just do everything 100% and have another safe trip.

To add on, check your air lines and listen for leaks along with checking the glad hand seals.

One thing I'm concerned about is that I edit my logs on a regular basis. Of course they are always 100% legal after I edit them, but will I get a ticket for editing too much?--"falsifying my logs" as they say. No one can prove anything, but still.

I'm talking about stuff like this:

Actual: 8:15-8:30--On duty pretrip 8:30-8:52--off duty 8:52-start driving

After I edit: 8:15-8:36--off duty or SB 8:36-8:52--On Duty pretrip 8:52--start driving

Maybe my pretrip took longer than I expected. Or I forgot to do something before I left. Either way, editing extends my 14, which could help me not run out of hours too early that day.

Another example might be to accidentally stay logged On Duty for a drop and hook. I edit the time to show a SB period sandwiched between two short periods of On Duty not driving--the "sleeper sandwich" lol.

Is this going to get me into trouble?

One thing I'm concerned about is that I edit my logs on a regular basis. Of course they are always 100% legal after I edit them, but will I get a ticket for editing too much?--"falsifying my logs" as they say. No one can prove anything, but still.

I'm talking about stuff like this:

Actual: 8:15-8:30--On duty pretrip 8:30-8:52--off duty 8:52-start driving

After I edit: 8:15-8:36--off duty or SB 8:36-8:52--On Duty pretrip 8:52--start driving

Maybe my pretrip took longer than I expected. Or I forgot to do something before I left. Either way, editing extends my 14, which could help me not run out of hours too early that day.

Another example might be to accidentally stay logged On Duty for a drop and hook. I edit the time to show a SB period sandwiched between two short periods of On Duty not driving--the "sleeper sandwich" lol.

Is this going to get me into trouble?

I edit my logs for the same reason and haven't had any issues. They look for driving past your 11, 14, 70, if you are taking the 30 min break, pretrip minimum of 15 min., etc.

Yes and no. When you're doing a drop and hook , they know it takes time to perform the steps in connecting and disconnecting a trailer. Unless someone else did all the work, you should technically be on duty to at least show time performing the duty. Now, if you spent 45 minutes hunting for a trailer, went back and edited 15 minutes out of that to show off duty because you decided to eat a sandwich or whatever, it's hard to say you didn't and you've shown time for performing work related duties, just not all of it. Not showing any time at all could be seen as falsifying logs but again it's officer discretion.

??? Editing doesn't extend your 14... your 70 it can.. but only 8 in sleeper can do the 14

I think we all work our logs to maximize our day, the key is to meet the minimum legal requirements.