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Texas CDL Laws and Regulation Questions..

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I hide my truck on a side road outside of Dyersburg for over an hour until they escorted another trucker to the Courthouse to pay his fine. I then blew black smoke all over West Tennessee racing back to Alabama.

- Ed
 
I can't speak for other areas of the country, but here in PA there appears to be a very grey area developing on what is considered to be commercial. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of trucks on the road around here working the shale operations. Some with DOT #'s, some without. Some owned by companies wearing lettering, some not. Some owned by individuals with blank doors, and some lettered with company names. Some being operated by drivers with CDLs, some not.

Being in the Fire/EMS business for many years, I have quite a few friends who are either state or local officers. In talking with some of these guys, they are getting very frustrated at the enforcement level trying to deal with all of this activity and getting a lot of pressure from above to make sure that everyone is in compliance.
exactly... here in Texas has historically been the same thing. Some with company logos on the dorrs of a F350 service truck bed with no thoughts compliance. Over weight, no CDL, working 30 hours straight, driving across the Tx La line repeatedly..... Others like us TRYING to do the right thing every time, but its like trying to hit a moving target with various interpetations of the law.
States look at it as a BIG opportunity to generate revenue in the name of compliance.
 
Wingate, you are correct. Running commercial is entirely different from being a private citizen in your personnal vehicle. That being said, when I ran drug interdiction, somewhere between 20-25 minutes was considered the maximum that we could hold a vehicle if we weren't given permission to search it and didn't have probable cause. This time limitation theoretically gave us enough time to get our canine unit on the scene and do a walk-around with ole 'sniffer'. If he alerted, well that now became probable cause and the fun started.

- Ed
and the dog "alerted" is the biggest bunch of bs ive ever personally witnessed. Thats slight of hand by the canine handler to make it appear as though the dog "alerted" to something, therefore he basically made up probable cause.
 
Wingate, you won't get any argument from me, lol.

And BIG's correct; when I was driving I always tried to skirt the scales. On more than one occasion late at night and in heavy traffic, I ran through the scales. And of course, I've paid my share of fines when I was caught in the old days without ICC authority. I-10 was always a first-rate challenge when I ran from Powder Springs, GA to Victoria, TX every other week. And, I won't deny that 'gypsy' truckers are one reason why everything tightened up.

My apologies to all the professionals, but this poor old country boy had to eat! Question: What's a log book?

- Ed

- Ed
 
and the dog "alerted" is the biggest bunch of bs ive ever personally witnessed. Thats slight of hand by the canine handler to make it appear as though the dog "alerted" to something, therefore he basically made up probable cause.

Wingate, you won't get any argument from me, lol.

As an interesting twist to this conversation, I just happen to have an 18 week old German Shepherd puppy sleeping on the floor beside me as I type this. He just returned last week from his initial 3 week in-house basic obedience training at a professional trainer that preps GSDs for police, search and rescue, and other specialized work. Lets just say that even at 18 weeks, I can make him follow quite a few commands with nothing but subtile hand signals. ;)
 
Jgillot, Auburn University has a kennel and school located on Ft. McClelland in Anniston which is located about ten miles from me. They use Labrador Retrievers out of Australian stock for their dogs that are bred for bomb and drug detection. There must be quite a demand from the Coast Guard and muncipal law-enforcement. I've heard some outrageous prices for these pooches.

We had some kind of Norwegian wolf-looking beast when I was with the Sheriff's Department that would be sent in to quell the inmates in the jail. Half the time the rascal would get excited and bite his handler.
 
Wingate, you won't get any argument from me, lol.

And BIG's correct; when I was driving I always tried to skirt the scales.

My apologies to all the professionals, but this poor old country boy had to eat! Question: What's a log book?

- Ed

- Ed

Ed

Im not going to make excuses for what I did behind the wheel, I did it to make money and for no other reason. I liked looking out the windshield to see the ever changing view. Driving a desk would have made me go out and put one round in a revolver and spin the big wheel of fortune, with Vana White cheering me on.

I also couldn't see driving the hours that were law, If I couldn't drive more than 10 hours a day then what the hell was I doing behind the wheel of a truck trying to make money? I ran multiple log books and only got caught 1 time, it was a $150 dollar fine and 8 hours in the scale. BIG DEAL

The ones that complained that the haul rates were to low were the guys that sat in truck stops and talked about how good a trucker they were, refusing loads on Monday because the rate was to cheap and then come Friday taking the same load for less to pay for fuel to get home, I wasn't in it to pay for fuel.

I ran for a man that had the loads as soon as you dropped one, not far away was another going to another place that had another load waiting for ya. He didn't charge to much but ran the **** out of his O/O and expected noting but the best effort in return.

When I think I turned Professional was when I went to drive someone else's truck, hauling Fuel. I paid more attention to things when a BOMB was involved, being paid very well per hour made a big change in attitude.
 
I can understand the BOMB thing. I was in the farm supply business; fertilizer, feed, chemicals, etc. Our season was very limited at that time because cotton was numero uno, and grains were a distant #2. When 'lay-by' came around during the Summer we had to reach out and haul anything we could get our hands on just to make payroll. My first Summer I was hauling squashed cars for a recycler/scrap dealer into Tennessee. I wasn't too proud, just always in a big hurry!

When I look back on it, Jimmy Carter and his 21% interest rate really did me a favor. A few years ago I was assigned to his Presidential Secret Service Team when he was here for a Habitat For Humanity project. If they had known what I use to think of him they wouldn't have let me near him. :-laf

- Ed
 
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As an interesting twist to this conversation, I just happen to have an 18 week old German Shepherd puppy sleeping on the floor beside me as I type this. He just returned last week from his initial 3 week in-house basic obedience training at a professional trainer that preps GSDs for police, search and rescue, and other specialized work. Lets just say that even at 18 weeks, I can make him follow quite a few commands with nothing but subtile hand signals. ;)
Yep! While not professionally trained, I have an 18 month old female Boxer that I can do the same thing with. If they pull you over on something simple like a speeding ticket or no seatbelt or the infamous "license plate light out. " as they did me once! They ask for consent to search, if you refuse, they get canine out there, he pulls his BS with saying the dog alerted so they can search anyway. Once the search yields NOTHING, I suggested they use that dog for sniffing A-holes and went on to say they could start in his patrol car.
That was years ago, I wouldnt be as much of a s/a to them as I was then, but I can guarantee you they will NOT search my personal vehicles ever again.
 
The last young rooster that got in my face ended up getting his Jeep confiscated; quite legally I might add. He was just glad to get back to Georgia when it was all over.

Ultimatums are best given in anonymity.

Ed
 
Jgillot, Auburn University has a kennel and school located on Ft. McClelland in Anniston which is located about ten miles from me. They use Labrador Retrievers out of Australian stock for their dogs that are bred for bomb and drug detection. There must be quite a demand from the Coast Guard and muncipal law-enforcement. I've heard some outrageous prices for these pooches.

We had some kind of Norwegian wolf-looking beast when I was with the Sheriff's Department that would be sent in to quell the inmates in the jail. Half the time the rascal would get excited and bite his handler.

Solid line GSDs are pulling quite a sum also right now. Mine will be trained for search/tracking etc. So far his nose seems very good.
 
I'm very partial to using animals to supplement and enhance the abilities of the military and law-enforcement. I spent ten years as a mounted police officer with our local Sheriff's Department. Our unit started out as a search and rescue unit that was to be used in the surrounding mountains but shortly some of us received additional training for crowd control, security and regular patrol work. We trailered to the Gulf Coast for Mardi Gras, worked the Talladega Races, provided security for Jimmy Carter as I previously mentioned, and were on the streets during high-profile murder trials. The certified mounted police among us donated a minimum of forty hours per month to the Sheriff while in this capacity. It was a very rewarding experience.

- Ed
 
On I-476 yesterday near the Clarks Summit toll plaza. PA state police and a DOT van had a VW Jetta pulling a small U-Haul trailer pulled over. I didn't have a chance to get a pic. Looked like they had the driver out and were looking at the hitch.
 
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