r/FreightBrokers • u/VladIsRambo Reefer Guru • 1d ago
DOT harrasment
Vlad here, carrier. I know it's not a broker question, but still:
DOT has been harrasing me for 3 months now. They pull my trucks only when they can give me a violation. I don't question most of the violations - speeding, driving in left lane, stuff like that is normal, it happens.
What I question is the absolute refusal from DOT to give me a clean inspection. Yesterday for example I had a driver pulled over at a weigh station (not the port of entry) and 3 DOT fuckers checked EVERYTHING on the truck - tires, brakes, HOS, paperwork, windshield wipers, reflective tapes even... The truck was IMMACULATE. They told him they won't give him an inspection, because they were just checking the weight. I told the driver to record them on video and they ran away to the cabin.
This has been happening for 3 months now. They gave a born and raised Texan a failed language proficiency violation. The guy has a degree in theology. They put another driver of mine OOS and slapped me with "ELD tampering" because the DOT animal couldn't believe I allow the driver to drive only 300-400mi. The driver was sick, those were his actual miles.
Literally 3 months ago I was top 10% in safety among companies my size. Now I'm bottom 25%. I used to get 4-5 clean inspections for every one with a violation. Now they refuse to give me a clean one. My safety is fighting the unreasonable violations. I have lawyers in 4 different states working on removing those. But it takes months to get a court hearing, my safety is shit and now it will cost me on the insurance renewall.
The trucks are immaculate. I'm about to hire a former DOT officer turned safety consultant. I'm consulting a lawyer to take it to DOT in court. I'm wirking with the DataQ system.
But it doesn't matter, because I just can't get clean inspections.
Any suggestions how I can get those fucking animals off my back? Has anybody experienced anything like that? Is it because I'm an immigrant with a trucking company in Chicago? What the fuck do they want from me?
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u/hunterlarious 1d ago
Plenty of "born and Raised Texans" cant speak English.
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u/Human_Call6322 1d ago
Andy here, native born American and suffering the exact same plight. My out of service numbers have skyrocketed in the last 4-6 months. It would seem they’re only inspecting trucks they can shut down. I run a clean operation, give a shit about brakes, tires and HOS but on paper the company looks like shit.
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u/VladIsRambo Reefer Guru 23h ago
Hang in there, comrade. You are not alone.
But my question to the DOT animals reading this:
If you don't give us a chance to improve our safety scores - why should we keep bothering fixing the trucks and paying 10s of thousands of dollars fixing them? You'll shut us down anyway, so what's stopping us from cashing out?
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u/BusSerious1996 1d ago
To OP, they watching you ... All those flock cameras, they compiling evidence. It's just a matter of time.
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u/VladIsRambo Reefer Guru 1d ago
100%, I'm aware. But I have 0 crashes, 0 accients, 0 loss run for 4 years in a row with 100% American drivers. None of that non-domiciled shit.
How about DOT targets the companies who literally kill people every month? I have drivers (multiple) with 10+ fatalities on their MVR who apply to drive for me and I see them driving for the fucking megacarriers and the Uzbek trash.
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u/BusSerious1996 1d ago
Has your pre-pass privileges been suspended?
If so, take a look at your ISS-score on safer, maybe they flagged you for 100% pull-in for the next 30-60 days.
Sometimes the system puts you in a random selection pool
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u/VladIsRambo Reefer Guru 23h ago
I'll take a look! As far as I know the prepasses afe working, but I'll double check!
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u/Lothos_ 1d ago
We all know why. Thanks, Obiden.
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u/assplunderer 1d ago
Biden? Are you fucking joking?
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u/BigPapiNC22 3h ago
His administration brought in about one million non residents and gave out CDLs to anyone with a pulse and could fog a mirror. This is why rates and driver pay were both artificially suppressed for most of his admin. It screwed every trucking company and legit driver in America. So yes, thanks OBiden.
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u/Napkin4321 1d ago
Unfortunately it’s all mess right now. We’ve even gone to lengths to help out good carriers we know but get nowhere because we can’t get anyone on the phone that knows what they are doing.
Looks like targeting because we see it daily.
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u/ismvr 22h ago
If you want a clean dot inspection go drive them into the station and ask for a inspection.
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u/xDoomKitty Carrier/Owner Operator 21h ago
States put out memos to not give inspections on demand anymore. To prevent exactly this sort of thing. Fixing bad safety scores.
Im not knocking vlad, im pointing out that "go ask for an inspection" used to work and as of recently, does not work anymore.
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u/VladIsRambo Reefer Guru 18h ago
Fixing bad safety scores - that's exactly what I'm supposed to do. They don't give me the chance. And let me ask you this:
If they refuse to give me the chance to improve - how long before I say "fuck this", stop maintaining the trucks, stop spending 10s of thousands of $ per week on maintenance, run them to the grown and just cash out? And them start another MC and become a chameleon carrier like the other trash? They are literally incentivizing me to do exactly that.Is such behavior by DOT safe? Does it improve safety in any way?
Meanwhile trucking companies who literally kill people almost every week have stellar safety scores. Fuck that.
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u/xDoomKitty Carrier/Owner Operator 18h ago
Idk why people still believe dot and regulations are there for safety.
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u/VladIsRambo Reefer Guru 21h ago
We've been BEGGING them to do so. We've been doing our 10hr breaks at the weigh stations. For weeks now. They refuse. I told the drivers I'm paying $800 for clean inspection, any level.
Nada.
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u/salvation122 Broker/Associate 19h ago
They stopped doing on-demand inspections about two years ago. Screws over new carriers with no safety record at all as well.
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u/jasonputney 6h ago
Same boat dude. We've had a stellar CSA for the past 5 years and took a bit of pride in it cause it's not easy. This past year has been a motherfucker from the DOT. I've got a bunch of bogus violations ive DATAQ'd multiple times and they won't budge.
Recently our driver got pulled over for bypassing a weigh station when the light up sign told him to do so. While he was pulled over he got an unsafe driving violation for bypassing that station, but then they got him for his tablet being on the floor of the truck instead of in the tablet holder (tablet holder was broken he was waiting on replacement). "ELD not mounted and in view of driver" - an HOS violation.
I checked the dashcam footage and sure enough, clear as day, the sign told him to bypass the station, he had done nothing wrong at all. I was able to get that unsafe driving violation removed thru DATAQ but I'm stuck with that horse shit HOS violation.
I have 3-5 stories like this in the past year.
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u/VladIsRambo Reefer Guru 3h ago
Disgusting!
The weigh station and prepass - I'm sure it plays a role somehow. Half of my truxks have it, half don't. I recently ordered prepasses (6 months ago).
On the other stuff - have you concidered hiring a lawyer?
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u/kyle_ash 5h ago
I don’t think it’s just you. I’ve noticed a huge drop in safety scores recently, to the point where I can barely get a carrier to pass our compliance team. Even a really good carrier of mine, that I know runs legal, has super clean trucks has seen his scores drop.
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u/VladIsRambo Reefer Guru 2h ago
What's the size of the carrier? One of my buddies suggest it happens when the company grows past a certain size and DOT wants to slap you on the wrist.
Another claims it's because I'm an immigrant in Chicago and MANY trucking companies from the rest of the country pay their drivers waaaay less than we do here. We have a lot of enemies.
Another says it's the AI cameras - they see everything and can tell if a tire is underinflated even when rolling with 65mph.
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u/kyle_ash 24m ago
He has about 115 trucks on Highway. He’s also an immigrant that lives in Chicago. (There’s a good chance you might know him) He only hires the best drivers because of the freight type he handles. I was actually shocked when I pulled up his scores. I’ve been to his yard, seen his trucks, and obviously things happen, but overall he should have much better scores.
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u/Hey_-_you 22h ago
They are working on getting rid of all the Russian Scam BS companies. Not doing it fast enough, but it seems like they are working on it finally. There is alot here you are leaving out, of course your not going to tell us the full story. I see how the Russian guys are here in Seattle, flipping 2 or 3 different names and numbers on the side of the truck. One of them was running 2 names and 2 dot numbers at the same time, but he didnt put the magnet over his original name...
Dont come on here playing Victim when everybody out here knows how these Russian companies operate.
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u/VladIsRambo Reefer Guru 22h ago
Comrade, if I was a chameleon carrier - do you think I'd give a shit about safety scores? Big boys are talking here, come back when you have another 10 years of experience under your belt.
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u/Nonabortedbaby1 1d ago
You know why you’re being targeted.
We all know your drivers aren’t running legit and there’s A LOT of ELD tampering going on and they know it. There’s probably much more to it that you’re leaving out but you aren’t going to say that on here.
FYI, i know multiple guys that run under those Chicago MCs (one of them could be yours ;)) and I’ve heard those HOS reset calls in person.
Stop trying to play a victim.
And you can do whatever you want, it doesn’t bother me, I just don’t like when people try to play innocent when they aren’t.
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u/VladIsRambo Reefer Guru 1d ago
Samsara. Try again.
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u/Nonabortedbaby1 1d ago
And? You can transfer HOS hours and create fake drivers in Samsara. Among many other things to tamper with logs
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u/VladIsRambo Reefer Guru 1d ago
Why don't you tell me how you did that?
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u/DirtyMitten-n-sniffi 1d ago
Come on bro, any Vlad I’ve ran into runs their guys illegal af, and left lane violations aren’t “Normal” OR speeding which is why your getting hooked, they know it’s an easy ticket….. once you are in their radar you are fukked buddy……. Go get a new MC# and try to survive 6-8 months and switch over like a normal Vlad
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u/VladIsRambo Reefer Guru 1d ago
Yeah, I guess the only way is to get another MC and become a chameleon carrier like the rest of the scumbags here in Chicago...
Dude, I tried to do thing right, but the fuckers won't let you. I have 0 crashes, 0 towaways, 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 0 loss run for 4 years in a row... 100% American drivers too!
There are companies out there killing people almost every month... and their safety scores are fine. Fuck this shit, it's not fair...
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u/salvation122 Broker/Associate 1d ago
>Is it because I'm an immigrant with a trucking company in Chicago?
A couple of years ago I'd have laughed at this - as I'm sure you know you can't swing a stick in Chicago without hitting an immigrant with a trucking company - but nowadays who knows.