Episode #7 - DOT Inspections

In this episode of Driver to Driver, the main topic is about DOT inspections. You can find interviews at the following timestamps.
Val Stokes - 5:28
Ty Walker - 15:29
Brad Wiseman - 37:11
Question from the Road - 54:37

Transcript

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0:11

Welcome to driver, to driver, a Stokes trucking podcast on driver to driver. We will discuss everything related to trucking. And put a stokes trucking spin on it stokes trucking doing the right thing since 1979.

Mark 0:34

Hey everybody Welcome to episode seven of driver to driver a Stokes trucking podcast We've actually moved the Frankfurter studio to the back patio of our house grace Oh that's my phone Oops I thought you were hitting the table

grace 1:00

okay

Mark 1:03

You can speak you have a microphone in

becki 1:05

Yeah I know I shook my head in a horizontal

Mark 1:10

So this is going to sound a little different We're on my back patio today enjoying the first warm day of the year in Northern Utah it was probably 72 or 73 today It's gorgeous outside I'm joined by My my usual cohost she missed an episode but she's back And I'm also joined by the philan cohost

grace 1:34

Becky lover

Mark 1:36

we're all here We're all on Mike And this is going to be fun you're going to hear some background noise You're gonna hear some birds chirping You might hear my chickens You may hear my dog

grace 1:49

They are my chickens

Mark 1:50

Oh sorry

becki 1:51

It's like one of those a YouTube videos of ambient sound birds chirping and a stream in the background Yeah

Mark 2:01

All right so today's episode The main theme is what grace what are we going over

becki 2:07

D O T inspections

Mark 2:09

O T inspections There's a big road check coming up the first I believe it's the first weekend in may where the DOTD is going to be they do a blitz every I think it's twice a year First One's a I can't remember the exact dates I think it's the fourth through the 6th of May this year So I thought this would be a good time to talk about inspections What you should do to get prepared and be ready So our first segment is with Val Val talks a little bit about trucking today the equipment he had when he started versus what we have today and also some of the amenities and the one of the things in his safe I found the most interesting was talking about him talking about what the equipment was like when he started and how much better it is today

becki 3:02

What does D O T stand for dad

Mark 3:05

Department of transportation So I'm sure when you're driving down the interstate you've seen truck weigh stations right Truck drivers have to pull into those if they're open and they get their weight checked the weight of the truck not the weight of the trucker himself although he's part of it or she we get in we go in there to have our weight checked The States run the scales that truckers have to go into to get their weight check their paperwork check things like that They do a blitz a couple of times a year to try and catch people or trucking companies that are maybe not playing by the rules a hundred percent Me and Ty Walker get into this quite a bit We'll talk about that a little more in the next segment Each state has their own department of transportation For example Utah's is you dot You've probably heard UDA before Utah department of transportation So when we refer to inspection we just call them a D O T inspection

becki 4:00

So if they do a blitz and the time frame that they're going to do it doesn't it give people time to prepare

Mark 4:06

it Does

becki 4:07

You should blitz is a term used to go at something without that Something knowing that it's coming That's why third right quick Duplets

Mark 4:23

Blitzkrieg Yes

becki 4:26

because they weren't prepared

Mark 4:27

Okay So

becki 4:29

it's more like a

Mark 4:30

they call it So yeah they call it a blitz It's a test in school a test is coming So you study for the test but you learn while you're studying the Federal the U S D O T helps fund the blitzes for the States So they give the States extra funding So they have money to hire inspectors to work extra hours during the blitz The thought is by doing it a couple times a year Companies that maybe aren't great at doing maintenance or keeping their paperwork up We'll get prepared for those two different times a year And that keeps them safer throughout the year if they're ready for So even though it's announced it actually does help with safety Makes sense. All right. Let's get into our first segment with Val Stokes.

becki 5:22

Let's roll.

Val Stokes

Mark 5:32

Even today you still go trucking once in awhile

Val Stokes 5:35

I do Yeah I I got dispatched for this weekend I I've been told so I pulled in the Homer Zollinger's yesterday to deliver a load And I couldn't tell you the guy's name that was receiving over there yesterday but he knew me He says what the heck are you doing here I said well I just do what I'm told

Mark 5:55

I bet it was Dave roundy

Val Stokes 5:56

Yeah

Mark 5:57

it

Val Stokes 5:58

but I you know again I'm really really lucky We've got You and the other guys that are managing our freight and our drivers and our equipment And I don't have to get very involved with that nowadays I think some people prefer I don't try to Stick my nose in

Mark 6:17

It's just me It's just me

Val Stokes 6:20

So sorry going into decided but I'm better off to just leave you guys alone and let you do your jobs But from time to time I I get the call Yeah When we need a warm body and I really don't mind getting in a truck and going like I kind of enjoy it I don't I'm I'm glad that I don't have to do that for a living because it's uh it's it's hard work and it's a hard way to make a living it's difficult for families you know for a guy to leave his wife and children at home and be gone so much fun I'm thankful that I don't have to do it for a living but I don't mind going and doing it from time to time And I think you know if I'm sitting at a customer dock and The Bay area And one of our other trucks pulls in you know if we happen to be delivering two loads of that day and they see me there I think it's meaningful to them to know that I I'll get out and do the same things they do

Mark 7:15

I will

Val Stokes 7:15

I don't mind doing it

Mark 7:16

I think to some drivers it's meaningful just that they know who you are There's a lot of companies Not a lot bigger than us that the drivers may not know what the person that owns the company It looks like

Val Stokes 7:29

I don't see much of him him or her as the case may be like yes that's probably true but I really enjoy it if I'm in the office And one of some of the guys come in I really enjoy seeing them And I hope they I think they Get that they feel it and it's sincere because I know what they do when I was young there were smaller independent truck stops All along the way I'll just say And just about every one of them had a pretty decent restaurant And just like I said about our little place that I've worked for over there at the crossroads When you pulled into one of those places you know you drunk drivers got a lot of respect I don't think that's true today These truck stops and I don't want I hate I don't want to try to bad mouth other people's businesses but they don't really provide much for a truck driver I guess it's they're trying they're doing what they can but I don't know I just think that it would be nicer if a guy could walk in and sit down in a nice restaurant and order a decent meal than to go to fast food places or have to buy some chips or a candy bar off the shelf and call that his lunch

Mark 8:39

I don't know why When you started talking about that I like pictured was smokey and the bandits the snowman walking in you know can we give me a Dr Pepper and Diablo sandwich Make it snappy I'm gonna God damn hurt That's the sheriff that says that but not that I've ever you know

Val Stokes 9:02

Yeah Well everything's different now Yeah Thankfully we have the equipment is just like night and day compared to what we had when I was young the equipment's very nice It's comfortable Pretty much a hotel room on wheels

Mark 9:18

When I first started driving in the late nineties I think the first truck I drove was like a 89 or a 90 I remember getting a TV in the second truck I had a little inverter you know I think you could buy 12 volt TVs at that time but I just had this little and I had a PlayStation video game system in there And I was all about that And then just last week I can't Oh this week when when Dom Don beam was starting we looked at the The TV mounts we have in the trucks Right All of our trucks have a have a flat screen TV mountain now And he's like Oh that's awesome Like how big a TV can I put on there Heads Like I don't know I haven't put a TV in a truck for 15 years You know now I I it's like truck and sleep and if I want to watch something that's on my laptop But anyway yeah Things have have definitely evolved Well I I I don't know what else I want to cover There's lots of stuff we can talk about but not a whole lot I'm gonna put out on here So

Val Stokes 10:19

I think we've learned a lot along the way you know the cheapest tires not always the cheapest tire in the long run things like that We we buy a really premium tire from our supplier from jacks

Mark 10:32

Hey that just made me think of something So when you started they were all biased play right

Val Stokes 10:37

I believe when I bought that Freightliner it had it had Tubeless wheels and Mitchell and tires on it And you know they were radial tires The first trailer that I bought had they were tubeless which even that was a big deal

Mark 10:52

It wasn't split

Val Stokes 10:53

Yeah It wasn't a tire with an inner tube and I don't want to split rim They were they were tubeless but they were Yeah What what we'd call like a bias plier a fabric tire not not a radial So I probably wore those out before I put a set of radial tires on the trailer

Mark 11:11

air ride When was your first air ride

Val Stokes 11:13

Uh that that truck had what was called a Freightliner air leaf air ride It was a was a four system because the the Bring it was like a half spring and then an airbag in that half bring would break all the time I got pretty good at replacing those

Mark 11:32

they were

Val Stokes 11:33

they were a pain the and then spring right on the trailer I boy I don't know when we bought the first air ride trailers like I couldn't say it's been a long time We've had our ride trailers for a long time but

Mark 11:45

Late eighties probably

Val Stokes 11:47

later than that I'd

Mark 11:48

you think in the nineties

Val Stokes 11:50

I mean if you buy a like I was saying we buy a premium tire and we pay dear forum compared to what you could buy a foreign made I'll just say I won't say specifically Where they might come from

Mark 12:07

same place as a virus

Val Stokes 12:08

Yeah Yeah Maybe you know you could buy a tire like that today for a few couple of hundred dollars versus five or six that we pay for what we're buying But when we see our fuel mileage and the longevity of the of those tires that first Tire and then the casing as well and what that casing is worth when we've worn it out And not to mention to me prob maybe most importantly our guys are riding on them every day it's not the most expensive tire It's the it's the least expensive tire

Mark 12:45

So

Val Stokes 12:45

just there and it's there's a lot of little things like that that we've learned that we You know we I say we buy an owner operator spec truck we'd buy nice trailers And I think in the end when it's time to trade those we get that value back So in the end it wasn't more expensive to own that type of equipment

Mark 13:05

Yeah I've the instructor in the maintenance program that we do now I really about half the time when I'm thinking about whether we want to do something that's part of it has to do with I might be driving it someday Right So Some of the trucks we spec as we're doing that I have that in the back of my head Well what if I'm in that thing What do I want in that truck I need an inverter you know things like that So and I don't know I'd say we're probably a little different that way as a company than a lot that because so many of us in the office it could end up in a truck at one point

Val Stokes 13:38

And I'm not sure what other people spec I'm sure most carriers are specking pretty nice equipment but I would dare put ours up against just about anybody's I think we buy a premium tractor and trailer

Mark 13:52

I agree All right Well I appreciate it It's lunchtime I don't know if you can hear that but

Val Stokes 13:59

I don't know if I've told you anything that you wanted to hear or that would be meaningful to anybody that's listening. Maybe some of, some of the older guy, if there's older guys out there that tune in, they might have some interest in some of those things.

Mark 14:09

This'll be, uh,

Val Stokes 14:11

I th I think what you need to do is, has interviewed Jimmy one of these days, Jimmy knew, uh, all, all the old, good old legend truck drivers from around cache Valley and around Treemont. And then. And there, there were some legends. Those guys were amazing. He could probably tell you some stories.

Mark 14:31

I hear about it. The more, uh, I'm wishing I would have grown up around here. Like really? I, I suppose there was a few guys like that at home. The one guy I can think of specifically Manny Brazil, he was kinda my. My mentor, I didn't know him. As soon as I started driving. I knew him before I started driving. And then eventually both of us were working at the same company and very similar, you know, like he taught me how to cage a break can. And, but the trucking basics that nobody's learning that today. And.

Val Stokes 15:05

we've all got a cell phone. We don't have to know.

Mark 15:08

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's for sure. But I'm glad I, I know, even if I don't need to use it today. All right, well, we're going to, we're going to end it right there.

Val Stokes 15:18

well, it's been fun.

Ty Walker safety minute - DOT Inspection

Mark 15:28

Ah great segment there with Val a what's next grace

grace 15:32

It's a tie Walker safety minute and

Mark 15:35

the subject is

grace 15:37

inspections

Mark 15:38

The OT inspections this segment with Taiwan Walker was when I asked him about smokey and the bandit

grace 15:46

Yeah he didn't he hadn't watched it

Mark 15:49

Well

becki 15:50

Have you

grace 15:50

cause he's a youngen I haven't watched it

becki 15:53

So why are you giving Taiwan a hard time

grace 15:56

I'm commenting on how I know what's in the episode

Mark 16:02

I actually asked this raise recorded over a month ago the safety minute and I asked him again today and he still hasn't watched smoking in the banded Well I seek I seek it out for him It is on Sundance video on demand

becki 16:19

Can I edit that

Mark 16:20

what's Seeked W I sought it out today for him seek sought. I'm a truck driver, man. I'm not an English major

becki 16:30

Who has edited and gotten A's in several college English classes.

grace 16:37

I'm pretty sure I got an a minus or a B,

Mark 16:40

Yeah. So quit saying how great you are. All right. Well, here we go. With a tie Walker safety med on DLT inspections. Thank you for joining us for another episode of tie Walker's safety minute, I am joined by our safety director, Thai Walker safety director for Stokes trucking, Everybody's going to notice a little difference in the audio quality. We're doing this in two separate locations. I'm in my basement office and Tai is working in the office and tree Monton. And we're doing this via zoom. Ty, how's it going today?

Ty Walker 17:28

It is going great. How are you doing today,

Mark 17:30

I'm doing wonderful So what is our topic for today?

Ty Walker 17:34

Today I thought we could talk a little bit about. What a driver can do to be prepared for a DOD inspection. I know our company and I'm sure most companies have their fair share of, inspections. I guess the question is why is the DLT, why are they doing this? Mark? What do you think?

Mark 17:51

I think they don't want us to be like smoking in the bandit.

Ty Walker 17:54

that's, that's a good answer. Hey, I don't want us just, uh, You know, cruising down the road with

Mark 18:00

to smuggle beer from Techstar, Canada, Atlanta, because a fat man and a midget wants it. Is that politically accepted as midget. It's a little person, sorry, Mike Larson. When you listen to this, I didn't mean to offend you. Have you ever seen smoking in the van at wait a minute, we got to back up just a minute. Ty. You're you're you're a little on the younger side. Have you ever watched smokey and the bandit?

Ty Walker 18:23

you always do this to me, Mark. You always asked me if I've seen this or if I can know if I know this reference and I never do

Mark 18:30

you've never seen smoking in the van that

Ty Walker 18:32

I don't think I've ever

Mark 18:33

Holy Oh, Ty,

Ty Walker 18:37

Can that be my assignment for tomorrow?

Mark 18:39

that is your homework assignment for this evening. You've got to go home and seek out smoking in the bandit. Don't bother. Watch in two and three. It's a waste of time, but the original. Yeah,

Ty Walker 18:52

the original. All right.

Mark 18:53

original smokey and the bandit.

Ty Walker 18:55

I'll report to you on our next recording. Let you know what I think what I've learned.

Mark 19:00

I'm so excited for you to watch it Sheriff Buford T justice is the sheriff and smokey and the bandit

Ty Walker 19:07

Well, he might be the guy giving us an inspection next. let's back up a little and talk about different types of inspections. Do you know how many types of inspections there are Mark? You probably do because you always answer all the questions correctly.

Mark 19:21

it's either three or four,

Ty Walker 19:23

Oh, I think I got you on this one. There's actually, there's actually six different levels of inspection. I can see why you would say three or four. Honestly, I think we would only, well I've only ever seen a guys get level one, two or three Level six is specifically for like hazardous materials and then level five and level four rounds. He can't remember what they are. They're more specific and not nearly as common.

Mark 19:47

to cargo type there's specific to cargo

Ty Walker 19:50

Yeah. Yeah. I think one of them is, so a level one, and I mentioned this to Mark A. Little earlier. We weren't recording, but I, I said that probably 75% of our inspections here at Stokes are a level one or a level three. We don't see as many level twos. So a level one, it's the most thorough inspection the officer's going to be looking at the entire vehicle. So the tractor and the trailer. he or she is going to be looking for one parts or damaged parts. they're looking at braking systems, lighting, tires, you know, the battery, securement of cargo, depending on what you're hauling in our case. That's not really going to be a thing. All of our trailers are sealed, right. So they're not going to be busting in seals to look inside, I guess, unless, you know,

Mark 20:36

in California does this frequently at the bug check station, roadside inspector does have the authority to break a seal and look inside a trailer. They have to reseal it if they're going to do that. So most of the time when that does happen, they either have their own seals that they will reseal and notate on the bills, or they ask the driver. If he has a seal, they can reseal the cargo with

Ty Walker 21:01

Oh, Good to know. And I guess like a receiver, they totally accept that if a seal has been broken and now you've got a new one that has been put on by the DLT.

Mark 21:10

the only ones I've seen Jane have been going inbound to California. And since it's somewhat common there, most California receivers. Yes. They just accept that it's been broken by an inspector, usually an ag inspector in resealed, but roadside, they do have the authority to check the cargo, inspect the cargo. Mostly that has to do with smuggling things, right? If an inspector suspects that there may be elicit drugs or people. So it happens a little more often if you're coming out of a border area. I don't know if you've ever driven down close to Mexico, but there are inspection stations when you're leaving. The area of the border that they stop and there, again, they could break the seal open and inspect the inside of the trailer.

Ty Walker 22:00

Okay. See, now when I said cargo securement. I mean, that makes sense that they're gonna, look inside of a reefer van trailer for those types of things. But I guess in my mind, I was like thinking a guy that's on a flatbed. obviously if he's getting inspected, cargo, securement is going to be a pretty big item on the list. so with that level one, though, those are a few of the things that they'll be checking. They might, obviously those. Or more of the outside of the vehicle and looking at the equipment in that level one, they're also going to look at and make sure that you've got proper documentation. making sure you've got your registration, current safety inspection, your, if the sticker, just making sure that you've basically crossed all your T's and dotted all your I's.

Mark 22:44

I've had several level, one inspections, one registration that you don't want to forget as the driver. And it should be part of your pre-trip is the trailer registration. You always want to check and make sure you've got the registration for the trailer as you're pre tripping the trailer.

Ty Walker 22:59

with that. I'm glad you mentioned that because that made me think of the driver himself. He better have the things necessary for himself or herself, Their license, their medical card. those types of things as well.

Mark 23:11

in our trucks, in your permit book, you need to have instructions for our electronic logging device, which is Sam sorrow. We have that in the permit books while our trucks, but again, you should look. In your pre-trip, you should one, make sure you have a permit book and to make sure all the things are in the permit book you may need, if you get inspected, that should be part of your pre-trip.

Ty Walker 23:33

Being prepared, is probably gonna make that. You can go a lot smoother and then maybe Mark, won't get a call at who knows what time saying, Hey, I don't have registration for this trailer. Right? Mark

Mark 23:46

Absolutely. do you remember the last trip we took in the football truck? Me and Mike got inspected at the camera port.

Ty Walker 23:53

I do. It was a clean inspection and

Mark 23:55

was a clean inspection because I'm, crazy about things like that. And we do me and Mike, whenever we go to leave on a trip. Where's our permit book and we print out bill of ladings. So we have bill ladings to show somebody at an inspection because they don't give us a bill of lading, the football equipment, people, we just make up our own. So we have something and sure enough, the second time into Wyoming last year we had it. We got inspected in Kimmer.

Ty Walker 24:19

you did. And we were happy to see it because it was a clean inspection and it helped our CSA score that much more. so that's kind of the basics of a level one, a level two. As I mentioned for us in my time here, they haven't been as common. I haven't seen as many level two inspections come, come through. Um, it's similar to a level one except, the official is basically just doing a walk around of the vehicle. It's probably not going to be as detailed. If your brakes are not looking as good and you get a level two, you might, you might squeeze through and be okay. More so than a level one. cause it, the inspector, officer's just basically going to be doing a walk around. I've never had a level two. Here's the truth, Mark. I've never, I've never been inspected. So have you, have you had a level two.

Mark 25:08

Yes, I've had one, two and three. That's why I was thinking there was four, cause I thought four was hazmat, but it turns out it's six. I used to have my hazmat on my license. day's past, but one time, I'm sure I knew what all of them were.

Ty Walker 25:22

So with a level two, do you feel like from your memory, is it a little easier, not as complicated for the driver?

Mark 25:29

It's not as time-consuming, cause they're not, measuring brake pad thickness and it's really not as thorough., the inspection poured at Truckee and also mountain pass. They do so many of them, even a level one is pretty fast up a Truckee, level one versus level two, you know, you're talking minutes for a level two versus probably a half an hour, 45 minutes for a level one. so a level three is just paperwork, correct?

Ty Walker 25:56

it is. Yeah, it's just looking at that paperwork. So looking at a driver's license is ELV, looking closely into his hours of service, making sure that he's doing everything legally also looking at the driver's DBIR. So his inspection record of, of his vehicle. So those are the three most common types of inspections that we're seeing, maybe your company that you're working for. If you're not a stoke striver, you might be seeing some other inspections. Mark, you kind of talked about, I guess, what to expect as far as, you know, different time, as far as how much time it's going to take to get inspected. what are you thinking are some of the common violations That an inspector is finding you got any ideas.

Mark 26:39

The big ones these days, we've never had much trouble at Stokes with equipment. for the most part, a level one. I want to say over the last 10 years that we've probably had something like five violations in a level, one, something with equipment. We just had one a couple of weeks ago and it was really ticky tack. It was, the airline on the back of the cab was rubbing on. The condenser line going to the driver's APU and it had rubbed through to the cords. It wasn't leaking, but they shut him down and we had to get it repaired. and I say I was ticky tack because we're seeing that with logs too, they're hammering on form and manner, right? If a driver doesn't put in his trip number PO number, bill, lady, number or trailer number. They're getting after us for foreman manner type things. a real good friend of ours at another company. I just heard got a violation because his ELD logging device was not securely mounted to the truck. Most of our drivers are using cell phones, including me. I'll usually put my cell phone in the cup holder, which is exactly where this driver had his cell phone. And he got a violation for that. So apparently that inspector in particular wants to see that it's mounted to a suction cup or something on the dash. I'd probably try and convince him to come out and look at the truck and see where. the Sam, sorry, device itself is actually connected under the dash to the truck. And we're just using the phone as a gateway to keep track of where hours of service, but

Ty Walker 28:17

Yeah.

Mark 28:18

in a situation like that, Ty, do you think sometimes they're just fishing for a violation or maybe They weren't impressed with the driver. When he first walked in for his inspection,

Ty Walker 28:31

I think you're probably right. Mark. I think that could totally be the case. I don't know that a DOD officer has a quota, you know, so many. Violations that they're supposed to find or give each month or week. But I think what you said about, you know, their first impression of that driver, did the driver walk and slam his papers on the counter. Cause he's ticked, you know, that he's having to wait or spend 30 extra minutes there. If that's the case, then that DOD officer might decide, well, maybe we're going to teach you lesson, man. But I think the way that you. act is pretty important. If you're polite and respectful, the chances of them having mercy, even if something is a little out of the line might be greater kind of the same thing. If you get pulled over, you want to be nice and, and not be a total jerk. Right. but I think, yeah, you talking about general foreman manner. That's a common violation that. That they're finding right now, just log violations in general, you know, drivers going over on time, whether it's their drive time or their 14 hour or the missed break, these are all pretty common. a driver not having his updated medical card, or maybe forgetting update that information with the state where he resides either all common things. And then, even something like not wearing your seatbelt. You pull through there through the scale and they somehow see that you could be in trouble, right? Mark?

Mark 29:58

Sure. You're ready for a fun story. I got a fun story for you. This was from when I first started driving in the late nineties. Of course we were on paper logs and I'm from Nebraska, many people know. So I drove across Iowa a lot. And Iowa at that point in time was famous for giving drivers. Violations and shutting drivers down if they hadn't updated their duty status. So like draw the line down to driving. When you start driving type. I got pulled in at the Tipton Iowa scale it's mile marker two 67. It's a, it's a rest area. Now it doesn't even exist. Atalissa is four miles down the road from where the scale was. And they were going to do a level three on me. So he S you know, scaled me in, come on, bring your paperwork in. I get in there. And when I opened the door, it was a little, little scale. the size of you and Tyler's office put together. That's how big that building was. As soon as you opened the door, you could smell body odor, just terrible, terrible body odor. And there's, there's two Iowa, D O T guys, and a driver standing there and he's just standing there and he looked like he hadn't showered in a week. it was obvious. That's where the smell was coming from. So I do my inspection. I've kind of got a routine, you know, Hey, how you doing? Oh. And I always open up my permit book, right. To, you know, the registration to begin with. And we've got them all labeled. This was back in the day, another carrier, but that's what that carrier did too. We had a nice binder with everything in, so it was good and organized. So I get it level three, you know? Good to go. And I'm just about to leave. I find, I look at this guy and I said, what are you doing? And he says, they shut me down. Why? Cause I hadn't drawn my line. Oh, okay. So you're shut down for 10 hours. Yep. And I'm going to stand right here and make them smell me. All I wanted to do is go to the truck, stop and take a shower, but they're going to get to smell me for the next 10 hours. And I was like, okay. Well, I think it was eight actually at that point in time, it was an eight hour break we had to take, he said eight, I'm gonna stand here for the next eight hours.

Ty Walker 32:16

He use again to teach him a lesson.

Mark 32:18

That's right. Probably not the best course of action, you know, and Hey, maybe it was a, he smelled a little offensive. When he walked in to get inspected, right? Uh, something like that. I know at one point in time, they, they had some guidance from FMCSA that they should check and make sure your bed is made. Wow. If your bed's not made, or if, if your truck looks disheveled, they'd inspect a little harder, right? If you look put together, your truck looks put together, your permit book is good and put together. You're probably gonna, it's probably going to be quick. And you're going to be on the road again with Nario Ori and a clean inspection in hand.

Ty Walker 32:58

Yeah. Wow. Well, I wish I had to get his stories as you Mark. That's pretty good one. And I'm thinking to myself. Well, was that guy smart for trying to teach him a lesson for not drawing the line, but I don't think he was, I think you were right. I, I think you want to be prepared. You want to be clean and neat as much as possible.

Mark 33:21

Try to be, I mean, that's not always, you can't always nail it a hundred percent. Right. But all I could think when I left there was, he was a, it was a smaller carrier that that guy had was driving for. But I thought, man, they're going to pull over every single one of his coworkers now. Every time, one of those trucks comes through the port, they're going to inspect them and shut them down. If they're not perfect, all he was doing was causing bad blood.

Ty Walker 33:47

Yeah. I agree. Well, I think that leads us right into. Just some ideas of how we can be more prepared for a DOD inspection. You've mentioned as a driver trying to be clean and organized, but I think also trying to have your equipment looking clean and as organized as possible is probably a good idea as well. If your truck, you know, you roll in there and your windows are so dirty with salt and road grime that you can hardly see out of them. that person, that officer inspector might say, yeah, let's give this guy a thorough inspection and see what else we can find.

Mark 34:20

things on the dash. They want to make sure you can see out of your windows and your mirrors. They need to be able to see your lights. so they're not too worried about whether your gray truck looks like it's Brown, you know, or red. If you've been driving through Oregon and they've been, Sandy and the roads up there, but they want to make sure you can see out. You as the driver can see out your windows and mirrors and other drivers can see you on the road. So your lights need to be clean, your headlights, your taillights, things like that. things piled up on the dash. If they can see a bunch of stuff on the dash or stuck in your windshield, much higher chance that you're going to get inspected because you have to have a clear line of sight.

Ty Walker 34:57

Yeah. It all, honestly, it comes back to safety. Like that's the whole purpose for an inspection. They're trying to ensure that, your vehicle is safe, that the driver is safe and in a good condition to be driving. So yeah, that's, that's exactly right. If you've got your. Pop cans and whatnot, stacked up six inches and it's obstructing your region, then they're not going to be very happy with that. I think it comes down to being thorough when you're doing a pre-trip kind of like you've mentioned making sure you've got all your paperwork, all your documentation, and you're also going to, if you're doing a good pre-trip, you're going to be more likely to find any problems with the equipment. So you could get that fixed before you're actually getting inspected. these are just a few things, I think if a driver applied these things, you would probably have a smoother and a happier time. Each time you get inspected. And there's really pretty simple things.

Mark 35:52

Yeah. You're not going to bat a thousand. Nobody's perfect. And even, even me, I've not gotten a hundred percent clean inspections through my career, but as I've aged and learned. It more often than not. I don't really care if someone wants to inspect me because I know I'm good to go truck and trailer and me

Ty Walker 36:15

There you go. So that's just a few ideas. hopefully we shared a few things that. Might help you better understand, you know, different types of inspections and what to expect. And also just a few things that you can do as a driver to be more prepared for it. Cause it's bound to happen sooner or later, right? Mark?

Mark 36:31

It happens to everybody. Everybody gets inspected at some point.

Ty Walker 36:34

Yes, they do.

Mark 36:36

All right, Ty, I sure do appreciate it. This was a very intriguing safety minute with Ty Walker. If you have any questions, please email Thai. His email is Ty T Y. At Stokes, trucking.com. Any safety questions you have, anything about inspections. He would be happy to get an email from you, and we can answer those questions on a later episode.

Ty Walker 37:02

Yes, we would love that. So thanks for. I have with me today, Mark.

Mark 37:05

You bet. Thank you, Ty.

Brad Wiseman Part #2

Mark 37:15

And we're back from Taiwan. Walker's safety minute, grace. What's next on the podcast,

becki 37:21

You a segment with Brad? I don't know his last name

Mark 37:29

Brad Wiseman from premier truck center Oh wait I'm sorry Premier truck group I keep I always do that Yeah It's P T

becki 37:38

G

Mark 37:39

this is the last segment I recorded with Brad We talked a bit about parts availability that COVID is affected that substantially actually our new trucks that we're supposed to be here next week The second week of April they're delayed about a week and a half I haven't heard this for a fact but I'm guessing it's because of parts availability for assembly Talk about pre trips we also get into Freightliner assurance 5.0 which I wouldn't expect you to know anything about

becki 38:12

is that the AI steering thing

Mark 38:15

uh yeah Part of it So that new truck that I've been driving 71 the USU truck has assurance 5.0 All of our new trucks in this batch have assurance 5.0 the only thing that the USU truck has that the new trucks don't is the lane keep assist where it that's the AI steering where it steers for you w it is pretty cool It's pretty cool Feature on the USU truck Me and Brad Talk about that a little bit I really like it Val's not a huge fan I could see since I've been driving that truck so much maybe that affecting me when I get in a different truck because I've gotten kind of used to the truck doing some of the heavy lifting for me but uh we'll see I'm sure I'm going to have to get in different truck one of these days here we go with our segment with Brad Wiseman. So before we started recording you were talking about parts availability and the scarcity of some parts due to COVID Can you maybe repeat that or speak a little more on that I guess as much as you maybe want to I don't know if

Brad Wiseman 39:32

Yeah I mean it's industry wide It's not just time-honored and Freightliner it's every OEM and every really every aspect of our life that's going on right now with Yeah With everything being shut down pretty much worldwide with COVID supply chain issues are becoming irregular daily interaction anymore

Mark 39:53

So is there any parts in particular that kinda stick out for for a Freightliner where you're like

Brad Wiseman 39:59

There's been a few a handful not necessarily parts that you have to have right now just in the last few months fog lights shock absorbers and stuff like that So it's stuff that you just an example fleet calls me earlier and earlier in the week and had a fog light that was out and there's none available right now And to them it was a huge deal because it's a DLT violation But it's the explanation to them was everybody in the whole country including DLT is to realize right now but it's a supply chain issue because of what's going on It's not Daimler just doesn't want to manufacture them or yeah So

Mark 40:45

we about eight years ago quit specking fog lights on our equipment because of the OT violations It took us getting one ticket for Val to never order them again You want to hear a good DLT violation from yesterday You're going to love this I got the updated lines hoses on the back of the trucks starting last year in 2020 they have the rubber lines Now we also have APS on about half of those trucks We had a truck with an APU on it They got inspected at Truckee yesterday His I don't know if it was red or blue One of the airlines was rubbing on the electrical the tubing that comes up to the condenser that's mounted on the back of the cab It had been chafing and it had chafed down to the cords It wasn't leaking but it was out of the courts They put him on a service He needed a chunk of home It was about an inch long He just needed to cut that out of there and splice it That's all we needed to do We had to call a service truck to do it and it cost us $533 for a chafed hose that was not leaking

Brad Wiseman 41:58

The DLT inspector that woke up on the wrong side of the bed that morning

Mark 42:02

I told the driver Make sure to ask the mechanic how big a cut the DOD guy at Truckee is getting Seriously how in the world do you charge $500 for that

Brad Wiseman 42:16

Yeah we S we see stuff like that all the time So this happened several years ago I can't remember what the What the write-up was but there was a fleet several years ago that coming through the Willard port would get rolled up for the same thing on every single one of their trucks by the same inspector It was only that inspector and every one of their trucks that come through if they hit that inspector

Mark 42:45

He'd write them up every time

Brad Wiseman 42:46

We've seen the pattern I can't even remember what the failure was but

Mark 42:51

I worked for a little bitty and I think we had 11 or 12 trucks in Nebraska We hauled grain predominantly and there was a Mobile Nebraska DLT enforcement guy that would sit right at the intersection of IAT and us 77 where we got off all the time to head to the shop And every time he saw command ag services truck he'd pull us over And after the third or fourth time of him pulling me over I'd only got a ticket once I said okay No you're not weighing the on the side of the road We're driving back into town Like I was a real pain in his ass that time And he couldn't because he couldn't find anything wrong I was empty because the truck was damn near new I was just like screw you But it just got worse for work As soon as I was a jerk to him then everybody every time like he went out of his way to pull us over I don't know I don't know I guess he just didn't I don't know Maybe I dated his wife Hell who knows I got around

Brad Wiseman 43:58

We had this happen this was just a couple of years ago It was right right before premier bought us sharp had a brand new truck sitting at our facility They had a truck broken down up at their facility So they called down and said Hey can your pick up and delivery driver bring the new truck up take this one down for service Sure Brand new truck dealer plate the whole nine yards They flagged him in pulled him over on the side Made him wait for two hours Why they inspected it on a brand new truck

Mark 44:37

Whoa why I don't know

Brad Wiseman 44:42

Yeah I said the same thing What did they really think They were going to find something wrong with the truck had under hundred miles on it

Mark 44:52

I had a a brand new international I was driving across Iowa Northern Iowa through a little town They have some scales on the off the beaten path in Iowa and I was pulling a fairly new trailer You could tell it was a pretty new trailer Pull into the scale And there's a farm truck on the scale that like it was a grain truck And the back end was all rusted out Like it looked like the axles were going to fall out from underneath this thing It was horrible And he just green light all the way across off He goes I pull up on the scale and the guy red light comes on when he comes on the speaker Hey we're going to do a level three or whatever it was the full inspect the brakes and everything And I'm like Okay So when he got done everything was clean everything was good And I said just a curiosity Why'd the farmer with the axles that were about to fall out Why didn't you inspect him He was like why didn't want to shut anybody down I knew you'd pass So here's your sheet Okay Fair enough Thanks Sometimes they're nice like that All right

Brad Wiseman 46:04

I avoid them that bullied them

Mark 46:09

I don't even think about it anymore for the last I don't know I don't know how many years I don't I just don't even worry about it Especially with paperless logs It's they used to be a little different not necessarily because I was only always running illegal but I didn't Always necessarily keep my log book right up to the last duty status changed so sometimes I had that concern but now I don't my only concern is should I get inspected Like yesterday something like that I don't know I'm pretty good about it Looking at hoses because I'm the maintenance guy and I'm the one who has to give the EFS check if somebody has a problem But so I'm pretty good at looking at hoses zip tying them together So they're not chafing right That's all you have to do If they're attached to each other now they can't rub anymore and you won't have a problem I may have caught that but I've got a blast a fleet wide message out to my drivers I've talked to dusty and said Hey Make sure you're checking those these trucks with APU that their hoses aren't rubbing together So we don't get put out of service at Truckee Again I we sure don't want to have to pay $500 to get it fixed It's all about time management right

Brad Wiseman 47:23

It surprises me how things like that have changed through the years I've been doing this for a long time and it was back when I first got into this industry I'm going to driver would spend the first half hour 45 minutes of his day inspecting everything before he ever got in it to leave And now very few drivers do any type of a real inspection on the truck

Mark 47:48

And it's important So you don't end up with downtime on the side of the road right you gotta be careful how I say this because your pre-trip is on duty right But quite often if I'm going to go pull a trip I Oh I always want to get the truck and trailer hooked up the night before to try and find those problems So I don't want to end up with a blown radiator hose at the top above bear Lake or a blown tire in Montello or cause that's where it's gonna happen You're gonna it's gonna happen before you ever leave town It's going to happen when you're two hours away from town And now it's going to take you four or five to get fixed I think a lot of our drivers have to do a pretty good job of pre-trip and post-trip because we just don't have road calls that often we don't blow a lot of tires We don't have a lot of breakdowns on the side of the road I know we've talked about a bunch here today but really it doesn't happen as often as

Brad Wiseman 48:44

you think and see and I would say that's probably because of the culture of Stokes trucking You look at some other fleets they want their driver on the road as quick as possible so they don't even stress it So it's amazing to see some of these fleets that just No the driver backs underneath and hooks up and doesn't give it a second thought

Mark 49:06

it just can cost you so much time later on doing that It's just it's so costly It can cost a whole a half a week

Brad Wiseman 49:17

Yeah I probably too broad of a stroke there when I said that because smaller fleets still do a lot of stuff like that to look at some of these a hundred plus truck fleets that their whole focus is getting the load delivered and hooking onto the next one as quick as possible And and they breed that into their drivers So that's other drivers are thinking about it's just How do I get it done as quick as possible

Mark 49:39

And who wouldn't want to work at Stokes trucking They call me the tire Nazi come on Is there anything we spec on our truck that other fleets don't that helps us with uptime The answer to this may be no it might like a lot of it might just be standard for Freightliner at this point

Brad Wiseman 50:01

It's No you guys do spec a truck a lot better than a lot of other people do which that's a hard question for me to answer because the Warner family did a really good job of making sure that our customers spec the truck the right way so that was instilled For a lot of different reasons it was for their advantage just as much as it was for years

Mark 50:28

for resale later

Brad Wiseman 50:29

yeah Yeah if they spec the truck it's easy to get rid of that truck once we get the truck back key example of that is with what you guys are doing with assurance 5.0 Yeah there's still a lot of customers out there that aren't expecting any collision mitigation on their trucks at all So

Mark 50:47

We looked at it we're concerned for the rest of the motoring public for sure But if it could do you're on Facebook Or Instagram or Twitter whatever you're So choice of social media is there's all kinds of pictures and videos of accidents that easily could have been avoided And it's one trailer against another and there's a semi in the middle of that somewhere And most of the time that's fatal for the driver So we made that Decision as a management team that we felt so strongly that we needed to keep our drivers safe That even if they didn't necessarily love the idea of assurance 5.0 we couldn't sleep at night If something happened to one of our drivers and it could have been avoided had we had that on our trucks So that's why A good chunk of the reason why it got added to this group

Brad Wiseman 51:58

And because of that I would hope that your drivers or potential drivers that would come to work for you guys would look at that And that would be a key factor on why they want to work for you guys of Hey this company's this company is looking out for me and my family as much as they're looking out for anybody else But No that's why at the start of it when we were talking I was saying that once we get drivers used to the systems and educate them on them and what to expect and how they operate generally it's never an issue with them And I think as time goes on that's going to get better and better And it won't even be a question with drivers That's they're going to realize the value in their S the safety systems the value that it provides for them and they're going to want it

Mark 52:49

yeah I after Val took his trip to LA here he I think he's a believer now after one trip he was really happy with it and he was really happy with this side guard assist we've got side guard assists coming on all these trucks and he was really impressed with how that system worked The one thing he didn't like which we didn't get it on The batch of trucks is the lane keep assist he's I'd just rather steer it myself I'm lazy And I'm like let the truck drive man I want to but

Brad Wiseman 53:28

Okay that's the way I was with it after I first went and drove it I came back thinking why would a driver not want this

Mark 53:36

So my pickup my new pickup has something similar but it won't steer for you It just vibrates the steering wheel And I'm like why isn't this thing Just steering for me Come on Anyway I'm so lazy I'm

Brad Wiseman 53:52

There's a lot of times where I'm in my personal vehicle and it's man I sure wish I had that You know what I mean reach to answer your phone or you reached to grab something and it's Oh next thing you're halfling over

Mark 54:07

All right thanks for joining me I sure do appreciate your time And the time flies when we're doing this we've probably got about an hour and a half from the can here

Brad Wiseman 54:18

I got still got more in me if you want to keep going but or we can do it another time I'm game

Mark 54:23

W I'll probably have to have you I'll have you come back one of these days I'm sure Probably after the new trucks are here So thanks Brad

Brad Wiseman 54:31

You thank you.

Questions from the Road (QFR) - Cruise Control

Mark 54:40

And we're back a nice segment with Brad Wiseman there from premier truck group. grace, what is our question from

grace 54:50

Our question from the road is do you use cruise control in inclement weather? And that is from Shane Gorder in trucks, six 73.

Mark 55:01

So there's two answers to this question. There's the correct answer, which is what Freightliner would like to hear. And the D O T

grace 55:13

and the cops

Mark 55:14

The officer of the law is no Right You're not supposed to use your cruise control when it's potentially slick When traction may be in question The actual answer for me is it depends on the conditions And it's going to be I think the answer to this question is different for every driver and it is a hundred percent dependent on what your level of confidence is in the traction that you have on the road I don't leave the cruise control on no matter what Right If it's slick from snow or heavy rain and there's a potential for hydro planing I'll shut my cruise control off so that it isn't just a it's not an a or B right It's not yang or yang

grace 56:10

in my driver's ed class It would be an a or B

Mark 56:13

Well yeah so especially the auto manufacturers and tire manufacturers people that have liability online and even us So because trucking is a trucking company our answer needs to be in inclement weather You shouldn't use your cruise control But in the end the driver is the captain of his or her ship and they need to make a determination based on conditions whether it is safe and prudent to use their cruise control I probably use it more often than I should And I may be a little overconfident in my ability at times

grace 56:53

you do kind of have a big ego

Mark 56:56

Yes How else do you want me to answer that you get what you get with me Everybody knows Hey I got a question for you grace Do you know what Stokes trucking mission statement is

grace 57:14

to do a good job

Mark 57:16

Your clothes do the right thing We went through a bit of an exercise to come up with our mission statement And in the end we decided those four words summed it up perfectly And on the next episode I'm going to interview Tyler Howell our director of safety Next episode's going to be about a Stokes trucking mission vision and values I'll be interviewing Your mom

grace 57:51

Funny joke

Mark 57:52

Becky law and Tyler Howell Who's the director of safety And also our uh gosh we really haven't come up with a title for him I'd call him like our CFO or something like chief chief financial officer Right He takes care of all the accounting for us They were both heavily involved in coming up with our mission vision and values That came out of our driver satisfaction survey that we felt we needed to have those things written down So in the next episode we're going to be talking about that I also may contact one of the drivers just the chit chat For awhile to put in with that So with that we'll leave you for another couple of weeks Again thank you for downloading You can always find a segment if you're looking for it in the show notes by the timestamp and also you know do you know how many five star reviews we have on Apple podcasts We have three Yes So whoever you're using to download and listen to this podcast please rate and review us It will actually help us get more listens W

grace 59:19

They're going to be like grace should stop

Mark 59:21

talking Do you know how many downloads we have This is going to blow you

grace 59:26

No tell me

Mark 59:30

We getting it. We're averaging about a hundred downloads per episode. So, uh, 50 of those may be grandma Mindy. I don't know

grace 59:39

grandma Mindy and all her nursing buddies.

Mark 59:43

Hey, maybe I hope they're learning a little bit about trucking and how, how they get the products that they use every day. So again, thanks for downloading and listening and we will see you a little ways down the road, hopefully in a couple of weeks.

1:00:08

Thank you for listening to driver to driver. Uh, Stokes trucking podcast. For more information on Stokes trucking, please visit our website Stokes trucking.com. You can also learn more about us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram at Stokes trucking. The intro and outro music is I can't keep still. The bumper music between segments is fetch me another one, Both performed by the caffeine creek band Driver to driver is a frankfurter studios production