It's been quite a while since the last blog entry. Too much has happened in the last two months to talk about in this little space. Also, I just don't want to go into all the gory little details. [wink wink]. Suffice it to say that I've survived everything leading up to the April 15th crunch, which is saying quite a bit. Between taxes, jury summons, more repairs, and a million other things, this driver's lot has been quite arduous (word of the day). I wish I had time to share all the interesting things that have been happening, like how my friend Jeremy just became an owner-operator and on his first trip out he blew a tranny! I mean, things like this have been happening left and right. And what I can't quite understand is how I've been so strangely busy in spite of how much time the truck has been sitting. Much of the little free time I actually got after all the details are eliminated has been spent soaking up a bunch of content from the ever-expanding webber-net. It's kinda scary to think how far things are gonna go with online technology. But one thing's for sure- people will still need someone to move all their belongings! But one thing I wanted to mention is the level I inspection I got today at the Dunsmuir Grade Scale heading south on I-5 though Northern California. I've been a licensed truck driver for 17 years and in all that time this is the most remarkable inspection I can recall. First, let me share this picture with you:
As I pulled across the scale north of Dunsmuir I tried to appear like an unlikely candidate for an inspection as I sat in my truck doing 3 mph, looking straight ahead in a confident, non-suspicious way. I felt *very* confident to be honest, but that didn't stop the man behind the window of invisibility from changing the light to red. In response, I stopped and lowered my window. "Atlas, proceed to door number 4." Okay, it's been a while since my last CVSA inspection. I could feel this one coming. So I pulled into the last bay and was greeted by the unique lady called "April Rose". Yes, I'm not joking. That's her real name. She's a real DOT inspector at the Dunsmuir scale. The first thing she said was that I wasn't being pulled in for anything wrong. She said that I didn't have any CVSA stickers and she just wanted to give me some. (I'm just realizing now that this is all taking place in April- the very month which this lady is named after? Strange stuff goin' on here...) I resigned myself to whatever fate would befall me. I realized getting a clean inspection was unlikely- that rarely happens. I figured I'd have at least one issue to fix and I just hoped it wouldn't result in a huge loss of time, like the axle fiasco back in Georgia. Whatever problems she would find, I would be glad to fix them because I honestly don't want to drive around with an unsafe truck. And this lady was being extremely thoughtful to me as a driver, which is somewhat unusual for people in her line of work. I gave her my CDL, medical card, registrations and log book. She looked them over and gave them back (all except the CDL- you know the routine, right drivers?). I noticed that when she looked at my log book she seemed to be impressed. This is where the picture up above comes in. As she got ready to ride her little DOT skateboard under my rig, I was putting all my docs back and went to put my ruler back in my log book where the current page was. I was completely blown away by what I saw. My guess is Mrs. Rose was probably a school teacher, or should be one, because I suddenly felt like a fifth-grader who had just aced my homework! She put *two stars* right on my log page, along with the words- "Ken, Excellent log book- Thank You!!"
Now I know I am not the log-master of the universe. For one thing, I didn't list the complete addressess of my carrier or home office- just the city and state. I'm sure she has seen enough logs to realize that I'm not the best logger there ever was. That is what totally blows me away about this whole thing. Here you have a DOT officer- a *California* DOT officer- from a state that has a terrible reputation for ruthless treatment of truck drivers. And this officer is going out of her way to make me feel like what I'm doing is actually *ACCEPTABLE!!!!* Even *COMMENDABLE!!!* At that point she probably could have told me that my rig was a complete wreck and I had no other choice but to send it to the junk yard and I would have just said, "Thank you, Misses Rose." So when she called me back to tell me about an air line that was rubbing against the slack adjuster on the trailer (on the axle that had just been replaced!!??), I actually felt a little relief. She also pointed out another place where my tractor to trailer air line was rubbing against something pretty badly. Both of these were out-of-service violations, understandably. She told me this in a very sympathetic way, and then explained that how once the repairs were made I could get re-inspected and she'd give me those little yellow stickers that she wanted me to have. Well, either luck was on my side, or the scale had told one of the local mechanics that they were planning to do some mass inspections, but as I pulled out of the bay there was a mobile mechanic finishing up another truck. I asked him if he was available to fix my two air leaks, and he said he was. The repairs took very little time, and the mechanic brought Misses Rose out to my truck to verify that the repairs had been done. This was actually better for her, because the mechanic had my triler tires up on blocks so it was easier to inspect the brakes underneath. She put the yellow stickers on while I got the paperwork done in the office up front and joyously accepted my CDL back. And then when I was sitting in my seat getting ready to leave, she came over and shook my hand, and said she hoped to see me again. I have to say this- I told her it would be my pleasure- anytime. How often do you expect to say those words to a DOT officer? As of this time, I really cannot hold any grudges against the California DOT. If someone who encounters some pretty irritable drivers on a daily basis can be such a caring person in spite of it all, then the Golden State can't be all bad!
Comment By:
Alan on Sat, Apr 21 2007 @ 8:49 AM [PST]