DriveSafely
Redneck Anthropologist
- Credits
- 2
Hopefully, someone can save me some time looking all this stuff up.
Last month, I was pulled over by a trooper because my trailer lights had gone out. I had, of course, checked the lights before leaving on my run. Actually, I had checked them twice, because the particular tractor (a loaner) had a bad gladhand gasket on the service side. It was a plastic gasket, and was melted, probably due to brake antifreeze being used in the winter. I ran the truck over to the lease company a mile down the road (with the service line disconnected), so they could get dig it out of there, as well as make sure there were no pieces of gasket in the hose that could foul something up. While we were at it, we checked the other line and the pigtail.
It was daylight still, and everyone knows that it’s just about impossible to see if the lights are on on the trailer while sitting in the cab driving during the day, because many turn signal lamps are mounted under the trailer, and you can’t see them unless you’re going around a corner.
Anyway, the trooper shows me the how all the trailer lights are out, and I go and shake out the pigtail and get everything working again. Took about 30 seconds, if that. Then he went and did a Level II DOT Inspection. He asked to see my log book, which was current to the time I’d gotten off that morning. I had my start time, pretrip, and time at the shop scratched on another piece of paper, and he saw it, but wanted to see first where my log book was before I started bringing it up to current. I was then let go to do my run.
The report shows that I had violations under FMCSR 393.25(f)--no rear brake lights, and 393.9TS--no rear turn signals, and 395.8(f)(1)--log book not current. I thought these things were basically just notes by the trooper for FMCSA to use to see if there is are any negative trends they need to be looking at. I did however, fail to notice the “Y” (“Yes”) notation under OOS for the pigtail issues. I thought I had passed the inspection, because all was well when the trooper did his actual inspection.
My safety manager gets back to me and says that I had been “placed out of service” for the trailer lights, which made the company get 48 points on their CVSA score, and that they got 15 points for the log book. I don’t know what my points are yet.
I always thought that to be placed out-of-service meant that the truck could not be moved, and stickers would be placed on the truck, until someone came out to repair the problem, and signed off on the inspection sheet. This is also what other drivers are telling me. I was not told to initial the part where it says that the truck is “hereby declared out-of-service”. Also, FMCSR 395.13(b)(3) clearly states, “A driver failing only to have possession of a record of duty status current on the day of examination and the prior day, but has completed records of duty status up to that time (previous 6 days), will be given the opportunity to make the duty status record current.” The cop even wrote on the inspection that my log was current up to when I ‘d gotten off work that morning, about 12 hours earlier.
This all looks like a bunch of crap to me. I don’t see how just having trailer lights out and fixing it 30 seconds later constitutes an actual “out-of-service”, and the logbook part is completely bogus.
I’ve never had one of these before. Someone please advise. Thanks!
Last month, I was pulled over by a trooper because my trailer lights had gone out. I had, of course, checked the lights before leaving on my run. Actually, I had checked them twice, because the particular tractor (a loaner) had a bad gladhand gasket on the service side. It was a plastic gasket, and was melted, probably due to brake antifreeze being used in the winter. I ran the truck over to the lease company a mile down the road (with the service line disconnected), so they could get dig it out of there, as well as make sure there were no pieces of gasket in the hose that could foul something up. While we were at it, we checked the other line and the pigtail.
It was daylight still, and everyone knows that it’s just about impossible to see if the lights are on on the trailer while sitting in the cab driving during the day, because many turn signal lamps are mounted under the trailer, and you can’t see them unless you’re going around a corner.
Anyway, the trooper shows me the how all the trailer lights are out, and I go and shake out the pigtail and get everything working again. Took about 30 seconds, if that. Then he went and did a Level II DOT Inspection. He asked to see my log book, which was current to the time I’d gotten off that morning. I had my start time, pretrip, and time at the shop scratched on another piece of paper, and he saw it, but wanted to see first where my log book was before I started bringing it up to current. I was then let go to do my run.
The report shows that I had violations under FMCSR 393.25(f)--no rear brake lights, and 393.9TS--no rear turn signals, and 395.8(f)(1)--log book not current. I thought these things were basically just notes by the trooper for FMCSA to use to see if there is are any negative trends they need to be looking at. I did however, fail to notice the “Y” (“Yes”) notation under OOS for the pigtail issues. I thought I had passed the inspection, because all was well when the trooper did his actual inspection.
My safety manager gets back to me and says that I had been “placed out of service” for the trailer lights, which made the company get 48 points on their CVSA score, and that they got 15 points for the log book. I don’t know what my points are yet.
I always thought that to be placed out-of-service meant that the truck could not be moved, and stickers would be placed on the truck, until someone came out to repair the problem, and signed off on the inspection sheet. This is also what other drivers are telling me. I was not told to initial the part where it says that the truck is “hereby declared out-of-service”. Also, FMCSR 395.13(b)(3) clearly states, “A driver failing only to have possession of a record of duty status current on the day of examination and the prior day, but has completed records of duty status up to that time (previous 6 days), will be given the opportunity to make the duty status record current.” The cop even wrote on the inspection that my log was current up to when I ‘d gotten off work that morning, about 12 hours earlier.
This all looks like a bunch of crap to me. I don’t see how just having trailer lights out and fixing it 30 seconds later constitutes an actual “out-of-service”, and the logbook part is completely bogus.
I’ve never had one of these before. Someone please advise. Thanks!