We tried to give this guy some information, that's it. He NEVER listened to any of us, 3 of us attempting to inform him what we have learned, some of us the hard way. He was going to do things his own way, didn't care what anyone thought about it and now? A $250 fine.


I'm referring to another truck driver in our company that works out of our Tucson branch. He drives up to the main branch often enough and we - other drivers - see how he has his load strapped.

He actually started arguing with me about a year or more ago concerning straps and not having to put them under the rub rails. Besides Federal law, or own company's driver training program requires that drivers use rub rails if a truck is equipped with them.

But, that's now what he got caught on. Another rule about strapping loads is if the trailer doesn't have a bulkhead on the front (a big piece of metal basically that's on the front of the trailer designed to keep loads from shifting forward in case of accident/extreme braking events). The rule states that you have to put an extra strap - 1 more than would be required for whatever it is that is on there.

In the case of a regular pallet, that, therefore, would be 2 straps instead of one. Well, he was pulled over near Casa Grande I believe it was on I-10 and handed over a ticket for not having 2 straps on the front pallet. I saw the item on the front, plastic material. The driver was mad at D.O.T. because the item was "less than 5 feet in length". Yes, I said to him, but there is no bulkhead on the trailer, THAT is why you got the ticket".

He got mad at me and walked off. Tough. The new rules coming out? Retroactive, that violation will put 10 points on his driver record. It's a different point assessment than the regular one. It doesn't mean you lose your CDL, it targets you as a problem if you start racking those points up. It also affects the entire company. Yes, one driver here getting pulled over for that violation will put that information in a MUCH larger database and a cop in Virginia might see one of our trucks (we are a national company with a huge fleet) and pull it over to check - straps.

So, not only is this guy's insolence against the rules, cops and other drivers attempting to help him out going to cost HIM, it will also begin to rack up against the entire company. The new rules have provisions to actually shut an entire fleet of trucks - the whole company's worth - down. No, this one single individual isn't going to cause that, but if there are enough more like him, yes, that can happen. Then what? Hopefully corporate will jump all over this.

Corporate gets these notifications from the DOT about any warnings or tickets given to CDL drivers. There will be a notice of this violation that is automatically generated from corporate sent to that driver's management structure - which include the ops manager here in Phoenix and probably the GM as well.

I don't want to be a rat and say anything about the rest of what this guy does, so for now, I won't. The fact of the matter is, though, that all 3 of us drivers tried to inform him that his load was improperly secured on several different occasions of seeing this stuff, this guy just gets attitude. It's not like he didn't KNOW that he could get a ticket for such is the point.

Onto other things. $250. This is Obama's new ploy to buy a guaranteed control of the Senate and House. Nice. It's so OBVIOUS that this is what he is doing, it is nothing about trying to help the American people, it's ALL about buying votes. Totally outrageous, frankly. I hope those that were going to vote against entrenched, almost life-long politicians aren't swayed by this newest attempt to deceive, is what I call it.

I'm referring to the $250 he wants to give to Americans who are on Social Security and didn't get a cost of living increase again this year. $250 is not that much money and even for people on fixed incomes, I can't imagine it going THAT far. If it was $2,500 I could see some political damage, but hopefully that amount is so small it won't change anyone's minds. I would to see a total changeout of every politician that is in there, regardless of party, and replaced with new faces. Would that make a difference? Probably not, to be realistic, but it would be worth a try anyway.

Well, the elections are soon but I expect the political bile to only get worse, especially from the party that apparently is facing the inevitability that they are going to lose seats and perhaps lose too many seats to stay in control.

I'm still seething that the Obama administration would invite the Iranian president to ANYTHING - much less talks on how to deal with a war and cause it to end. It's like invited the devil to return to heaven, it ain't gonna work out too well.

Whatever.

Work day is here, albeit the fact there is nothing in the truck routing system to do (unlike the last 2 days where I have been extremely busy). Oh well.

G'day.

ben