Episode 112: DOT Blitz Week: How to Pass Inspections & Get Paid with Safety Manager Tyler Johnson

This week on Keep Trucking Personal, host Tyler Kivi is joined by Safety Manager Tyler Johnson to break down everything drivers need to know heading into the 2026 CVSA International Roadcheck (DOT Blitz Week), taking place May 12–14. During this 72-hour period, inspectors across North America will conduct increased Level I inspections with a focus on ELD compliance, hours-of-service, and cargo securement - making preparation more important than ever.

Tyler and TJ walk through what drivers should be paying attention to now, emphasizing that most violations come down to simple, avoidable issues like tires, lights, paperwork, and organization. They highlight the importance of building consistent habits, especially mid-trip inspections, to catch issues before they become violations. From how your truck looks when you pull into a scale to how accurately your logs are maintained, the details matter... and they directly impact your CSA score, inspection frequency, and ultimately your earning potential.

They also share practical advice on what to do if you disagree with an inspection, including documenting everything and communicating quickly, as well as how safety teams proactively review logs to help drivers stay compliant. With insights on cargo securement, digital permit books, and the risks of misusing personal conveyance, this episode serves as both a reminder and a roadmap for success during Blitz Week and beyond.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Keep Trucking Personal. I'm Tyler Keevy, a third generation trucker, and my purpose is simple to make sure the definition of trucking doesn't get lost in the culture this industry is drifting for. This podcast is about real stories, the hard lessons, and the standards that built this business long before apps and algorithms. If you believe trucking is more than freight and it's responsibility, you're in the right place. Let's get into it. Welcome back to Keep Trucking Personal. My name is Tyler, and I have a guest with us today. Last few podcast episodes, we've touched on building up to the DOT blitz, and many of it's been how to act like a trucker, how to stand firm, and how to be consistent and many things. So if you're if you want a playbook on how to get ready for the DOT blitz, go back like seven episodes and listen to them all because you'll be prepared for when this comes. But last week I talked real briefly about how to be prepared and how to go through your truck. And we always kind of, I don't want to say preach, but we always recommend that you stop before scales and you do your load checks and you do them frequently and often to make sure that you are set up for success. But I also want to bring in our guest this week, Tyler Johnson, who I referenced, uh who is our safety manager, and we're going to talk through just how we are going to set you up for success. So, TJ, so we're not calling each other Tyler to confuse everybody. How you doing? Doing good. How are you? Doing well. I I don't think anybody can get a better group, a couple of Tyler's. We know that that's already an A list. Uh, so we're off to a good start. Absolutely. This DOT blitz is it's a big deal. And like I said last week, it's an opportunity for us, not so much something to plug and hide somewhere else. This is our opportunity to be successful, and we will be successful. What things around DOT inspections, before we even focus on the blitz, do you see as opportunity for people to be prepared for? So just a random DOT. What are little things that come back to us that maybe you know good feedback and and bad feedback?

SPEAKER_01 1:55

Well, it's it's always the easy layups we can avoid. It's the tires, the lights, you're keeping track of your paperwork, your hours of service, all avoidable things, all things that can affect you getting a clean payout for a clean inspection and dinging our CSA score and hurting yourself at the end of the day, really. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

It's funny because it's always it's so repetitive, right? Like this isn't stuff you should do just for the DOT blitz. It's stuff that needs to be done all the time. Like you have to create a habit of it. But there's so many things that go into a DOT inspection, it's almost like a driver has so much responsibility that they have to be cognitively aware of, right? You gotta be thinking of, like you said, your tires, your lights, those are kind of easy ones, right? But then like for a fire extinguisher, is it secure? You know, is the little clasp over it secured? Do you have your triangles and do you know where they are?

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Right, you know, and even just looking organized as you pull into the skill. If you pull in with a dirty, messy truck and pour securement on your flatbed load, you're already sticking out as a red flag to them that they're gonna want to inspect you, that you're not keeping everything else in line as well.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

Yeah, well, and DOT have a lot of data that they look at. So if we start to have a rash of logbook violations, for example, that's the first thing they start to look for. So if we come in and we have cargo securement issues continuously, for example, they're going to say, let's go do a walk around on your truck and make sure your chains and straps are tight, or you have enough, you know, on your load to be legal. Like we set the tone, and our drivers, a lot of times I try to remind them like one inspection is a big deal. A driver might think, well, I'm just one of hundreds, it doesn't matter. Like they'll breeze over it. And no, we treat every inspection like a big deal and almost like a gut punch. So that's how committed we are. Like, if something comes in and it was a bad tire or some lights out, you know, we know things happen, you know, in the ether, if you will, that sometimes you can't control, but it still hurts. We take it personal and we feel like, come on, that's our missed field goal, if you will. We could have won that and we didn't.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

Absolutely. Most of the things are all avoidable. I mean, yeah, I get like you said, the things happen, but doing mid-trip inspections, stopping before scales, you know they're coming, you know they're looking for you. Just avoid setting yourself up for failure.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

Yeah, and they're not something that you don't deal with often. I mean, every state line almost has one, and then you if you're crossing a large state, you might end up crossing two or three scales pending you know your route. So these are things we deal with every day. So it's not like you can let your guard down and just say, Oh, I'm not used to this. You know, now throwing a pop-up roadside inspection, are you ready?

SPEAKER_01 4:19

Well, and think about it too, just at the terminal here, we have three scales within 15 miles of us.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Yeah, any direction you go to.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Yeah, you're no matter where you're going, you're running across one, leaving home base.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

Yeah. If there was a recommendation that would set anybody up for success, it's that mid-trip. Like, of course, you start your day and you end your day with the walk around, and but that mid-trip just gives you that opportunity to set yourself up for success before that scale and make sure it's tight and straps are good.

SPEAKER_01 4:44

Think about how many lights are on the truck and trailer that can burn out, how many 18 tires that can pick something up on the way, anything can happen.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

Yeah, and that's just it. Anything can happen in the blink of an eye. So we know this week's, you know, because this is airing one week before the DOT blitz, we know they're focused on logbooks and cargo securement, the two things that we need to pay attention to the most. This comes with us helping set the driver up with success. Now, we know we can't do all the securement for you, and we can't monitor that. So that's on the driver wholeheartedly. But when it comes to logbooks, we're gonna do some due diligence to make sure that everything's in line, you know, starting eight days out. Can you talk a little bit more about what you'll look for, you know, if a driver's doing something maybe not intentionally, but what you're gonna look for just to say, hey, here's a nudge, here's a reminder to get your stuff together.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

Yeah, uh, every morning looking at it, we get a report sent to us that uh shows every personal conveyance move from the previous day. So I can see if you're abusing it, if you're trying to advance with it, or if it's a legit move, I still see it. So watching that very closely because the PC violations affect our CSA score. Incredibly horrible. But also going through every morning, auditing logs, looking for missing shipping document numbers, looking for improper trailers listed, making sure you're connected to the truck, tracking your mileage, tracking your location. I mean, the B log in theory, if you punch everything in right, it does the rest of the work for you.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Those are gaps that they look for, specifically, even more so on this coming blitz.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

Absolutely. And this is obviously a practice that shouldn't just be focused on for the blitz. This should be an everyday because you get pulled over during the blitz, they're looking at your previous seven days too. Yeah. So you gotta remember to keep your previous days intact and not just be on top of it for one day. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:25

And it's not always it's not always just that we're all in eight days, right? Like if something happens catastrophically, like a driver should know, they can go back as far as six months and look at your logs. So have good habits start now and then you maintain those habits. Don't, you know, eight days out, yes, we're gonna make sure the little form and manner, as the DOT call it, is tidied up. So yeah, make sure you're paying attention as a driver to what you're putting on your ELD and making sure you don't have 10 trailers when you're only pulling one, right? We know that, they know that. And a lot of times, you know, we're here to defend you wholeheartedly. Like that's what I think is important. People know is our job is to defend you all the time. Something comes through, the best thing you can do in a DOT inspection that you disagree with as a driver, take pictures immediately. Take pictures because maybe you can explain how you back that in if you're gonna data queue of an inspection, because DOT officers are not perfect, and it's a lot of interpretation, and they admit it, and you're successful a lot of times correcting those inspections. So, what should somebody do when they go through the blitz? They get an inspection they disagree with. How would you like to get that received back to you?

SPEAKER_01 7:28

I'd like a phone call right away as I'm in the know about it. Obviously, sending in the paperwork is crucial because we have to hold it for a year regardless. And then usually I can't data queue it like the same day. It almost sometimes doesn't show up on the FMCSA website until the the monthly cycle where like where your CSA score renews. Yeah. So I gotta leave it sitting on my desk and play the wait in game until I can submit it, and then as soon as I submit it, we continue to play the wait in game. But being transparent about it and coming forward with it right away, that's the biggest part of it. Yeah, being aware.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

I've had the opportunity to talk to a few ex DOT officers, and and that's where I got that like interpretation. And then they admit in the moment, sometimes laws change, regulations change, maybe tempers are flaring a little bit. Who knows what led to that violation? But if you document, you take pictures, you're cordial, like there's a very good chance we can get your record cleaned as well as the company's record clean, and that's what we want. We want to defend you and set it up. So, yeah, that's the story, right? Like, you go through and you essentially battle the state, right? Toe-to-toe, like in the courtroom, here we go. Yeah, let's do it. Just digital back and forth. Otherwise, yeah, it's the same thing. So every driver should know that that's what we try to do, and we look for gaps uh or misinterpretations to set them up for success. When it comes to the cargo securement, what do you see often if there is a failure or a violation?

SPEAKER_01 8:46

You know, honestly, and knock on wood saying this, our training department does such a good job straight out of the gate that we don't see a lot of those issues. Um, but what I have seen, it's been like a kinked chain link on a piece of equipment or uh a strap that's chafed or something. Like I said, we don't see a lot of them, knock on wood, let's keep it that way. But it's little things like that that you still need to check your securement just as much as you need to check your tires and lights going down the road. Things happen, especially on a flatbed. Your freight adjusts, it rattles, it shakes going down the road, and it settles. So doing often mid-trip inspections is key to avoid any of those issues.

SPEAKER_00 9:21

Yeah, you had a great point there. Things settle. How many times has somebody hauled something where dunnage is broke that's layered in between? Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

That happens all the time. That's honestly that's been our biggest issue with cargo is just a piece of dunnage rattles loose or it breaks or something.

SPEAKER_00 9:37

Yep. Things that it might just be the pothole that jars it loose or wiggles it or wind or or just that vibration going down the road. So well, that's a good plug there for the orientation. Like you said, those guys are always available and willing to help. You know, recommendations if a driver coming up to this week has a load that they're worried about how to secure it or what's legal, send pictures in. You can send it to safety, you can touch space with Sean in orientation or even call you. And then, like I said, pictures, they do put a thousand words in one picture, right? We can work as a team to say, you know, here's what suggests or here's what's legal per, you know, the book.

SPEAKER_01 10:08

And a lot of stuff, like you mentioned, Sean, he's got a lot of reference photos for uh like an odd piece of equipment that we've hauled in the past that he can send right over, the driver can look at it and just kind of copy it.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

Might move thousands of loads, but uh often they they kind of fall into like six buckets of the same type of equipment. So yeah, good point. He's got an arsenal of like here's how somebody else did it that was legal. And those are the things I mean, it's like I said, there's a lot that goes in trucking. This isn't just a like get ready for one week, but it is a big deal, and we want to set you up for success, and that's why we double our payouts. So or the 12th, 13th, and 14th, you will earn double for any DOT inspection, even if it wasn't prompted for the blitz, it was just a random roadside. That's your opportunity to now double the incentive. Yep, put money right in your pocket. And those get paid out the following week. Like once we have the no violations receipt or the inspection report, then you work with payroll and boom, it's on their paycheck. We've had people get multiple clean inspections in a row. Have you ever seen anybody get multiple inspections during a blitz, or is it nobody ever get that lucky, like a lottery, if you will, where they've won multiple inspections?

SPEAKER_01 11:11

I think last year there was a guy that got inspected twice within the same week, but only one of them landed within the blitz period.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

And the numbers they put out are amazing of how many trucks are inspected. We've had some blitz in the previous four years or five years, whatever you want to call it, that have been really low, and we're like kind of you're like you're sitting here, like let's you're thinking it's just gonna be like here they come, and then you're like, we had one today. Like, and you know, how does that work? And that could be a testament to the drivers as well, right? Like everything looked good, all tidied up. And the DOT said there's a lot of other trucks out here that could use some attention, we'll focus on them.

SPEAKER_01 11:43

Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:43

And it is funny because anytime I go on a road trip, there's an absurd amount of trucks that I'm like, I would DOT that one myself right now because it doesn't look right. And and I know our drivers take pride in what they do and put a lot of effort in, and it's just uh it's sometimes can feel like you're getting picked on when you don't deserve it.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

Well, like I said earlier, images, everything rolling down the road. You you roll into a scale looking sketchy, you you're signing yourself up for it.

SPEAKER_00 12:05

Yeah, dash covered in paperwork. You know, maybe if that is you as a normal, let's take this weekend and put it on the floorboard and say we're we're in control. One more thing I want to talk about, obviously, like you said, we're gonna look at the logbooks, we're gonna make sure that the form and manner is taken care of and that you're not abusing PC. If you are abusing PC, I can only assume that you'll shut it down for this duration. Like if you willingly do something uh inappropriate, specifically leading up to the blitz, we'll take control from there. Right. It'll be gone, you won't even have the option to use it anymore. So know that, right? Like, this is not completely like we want you set up for success, but if you're making you know some loose decisions there, we'll get in control. The flapid one where there's so many resources, call, take pictures, send it in, anyone can help. The other side of this though that I've had some experience with recently, even though we've had it for over almost a year now, I believe, is the digital permit book. Now that houses everything that you need, but if you have not logged in recently, or you have not logged in, let's for I don't know if somebody could say they haven't logged in at all, you need to exercise that to make sure that you know how to get in, right?

SPEAKER_01 13:07

Yep, and it's super easy. And but by all means call, I'll walk you through it. But it holds everything your cab card, your if to paperwork, your registration, it holds all of it for you. You don't have to worry about keeping paperwork in order anymore. It's there for you.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

And that's for the trailer too, so that's why it's so important. Like if your document tube holder by some mystery has is empty, like you're not, don't let them write you up for that. No, no, no, officer, I've had it's all in my digital permit book. Like, that's why we have that. Yep, absolutely. And so, you know, as a friendly reminder, if you haven't had to use it, it's there, like you said, always. And maybe you've never been inspected since you've been here, so it's kind of just laid in the background. Take advantage of it, log in once, walk through where the documents are, look at your specific, look at look at your trailer's documents, just so you can access, find them, and you know how to access them so you're not sitting up because that does happen in Taco feeling ill-prepared as a driver. If you're sitting there like, I don't know what I'm doing, I can't get into this thing.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

Yeah, and what's nice about that digital permit book, it links with our e-log too. So if you're connected to your truck to the e-log, the documents for your truck are already right there. You don't have to go searching for them, scroll through the whole fleet. It's all right there. It's tied to your donga. That's wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 14:13

So simple reminders that I think that everybody can do is just log in once, start doing your mid-trip again. If for some reason you're not, focus on it for the 12th through the 14th. Take that extra time to make sure your logbook is very accurate and you're putting the right trailer and the right documents in it. Make sure your securement's tight and no cut straps. If you got what cut strap, throw it away, or put it in your headache and get turn it in. We want clean straps. If you have any cut straps, get rid of those. Like come into this with a fresh mindset. We prepare you with more than enough. We know our chains are good quality. You have big chains, you're not using little, you know, 316 chains. You have the proper equipment to do the job, make sure you use it, do it right, be proud of what it means to be a truck driver in this industry, and let's walk away with this with some hopefully big paychecks for people or earned double-earned inspections uh because they deserve it and preparing for it.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

Absolutely. I want to see everyone stay sharp and I want to get you paid.

SPEAKER_00 15:03

Heck yeah. So if everybody, if we have no violations for the DOT blitz, what do you think we should do? Is there anything that we should do or maybe volunteer somebody for if uh we do that?

SPEAKER_01 15:13

I'm kind of thinking if we make it through the blitz with zero violations, get a dunk tank here and feel free to dunk Michael Hanson.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

That's actually a really good idea. I think if you're listening to this, if there's anything at least you want to contribute to, let's get a dunk tank so we can set that up for this summer. We'll dunk Michael Hansen and then maybe some others. So I appreciate you taking this, TJ, to jump on, just walk through. I mean, it always helps people to know that that you're the guy that helps them on the road, but now they can also hear from you that you're preparing for it, you're gonna be looking for it. We want them to be successful and earn some extra money, and then also help uh, you know, our CSA score is important to you if you're a driver here because the better our CSA score is, the less times you get prompted to come into a scale and the less inspections you'll get. And at the end of the day, it allows you to put more miles on, which makes you more money. So it's a win-win ratio for everyone. Absolutely. All right, TJ, appreciate it. Thanks for joining the podcast, and we'll get you here again soon, hopefully. Appreciate you having me. Until next time, keep trucking personal. Appreciate you tuning in. If you got value out of this, subscribe and send it to someone who takes pride in the job. We're not just moving freight, we're shaping the culture. Catch you on the next one.