Who Paying Violations... Driver Or Company?

I work for a small company and keep finding trailer with expired DOT inspection stickers on the trailers along with no trailer registrations. To the point where I don’t want to take them out on the road anymore. I’m guilty of doing so in the past. Because I’m so new to this trucking world who is responsible for paying these violations if I do happen to get inspected? Thanks for any feedback.

Noel, fines not withstanding; if you knowingly run with a trailer out of compliance with inspection and/or registration, and you happen to be involved in an accident of any kind? You will be held accountable and possibly face criminal and/or civil penalties.

You have the right if final refusal to take a trailer like you described into a public road. Once you have made that choice, you are assuming a large degree of responsibility.

Not worth the risk.

G-Town's advice is spot on. Why work for an employer who is bending the rules, basically lying, and putting you at risk???? All the major truck lines will never do that. They want to avoid the fines as much as you do. You might want to seriously consider driving for a company with well maintained equipment sooner rather than later.

The company is responsible for paying these violations and it affects their safety scores big time... making it almost impossible for them to get insurance , here is an example as to how the company gets affected because any failed inspection is linked to their DOT and not the driver's driving record: Thank you for the new business submission. Regret I must decline due to rapid growth, conditional rating eff 5-6-19, 5 severe violations w/2 drug violations (1-19-19 & 2-26-18) and 9 DOT reportable accidents not on loss runs.

Unfortunately xxx will not back off of their declination. They will want to see the account show significant signs of continuous improvement before considering.

I do have into xxx for consideration but unfortunately xxx will not consider due to their safety scores are still tough at this point and there are a lot of unique VIN #’s inspected – much more than the 31 units they are running. They also have a very high driver turnover/new hire percentage so at this point xxxx may be our only option. I will advise as soon as I hear back from them.

it affects them a great deal

I work for a small company and keep finding trailer with expired DOT inspection stickers on the trailers along with no trailer registrations. To the point where I don’t want to take them out on the road anymore. I’m guilty of doing so in the past. Because I’m so new to this trucking world who is responsible for paying these violations if I do happen to get inspected? Thanks for any feedback.

The company is responsible for paying these violations and it affects their safety scores big time... making it almost impossible for them to get insurance , here is an example as to how the company gets affected because any failed inspection is linked to their DOT and not the driver's driving record: Thank you for the new business submission. Regret I must decline due to rapid growth, conditional rating eff 5-6-19, 5 severe violations w/2 drug violations (1-19-19 & 2-26-18) and 9 DOT reportable accidents not on loss runs.

Unfortunately xxx will not back off of their declination. They will want to see the account show significant signs of continuous improvement before considering.

I do have into xxx for consideration but unfortunately xxx will not consider due to their safety scores are still tough at this point and there are a lot of unique VIN #’s inspected – much more than the 31 units they are running. They also have a very high driver turnover/new hire percentage so at this point xxxx may be our only option. I will advise as soon as I hear back from them.

it affects them a great deal

I work for a small company and keep finding trailer with expired DOT inspection stickers on the trailers along with no trailer registrations. To the point where I don’t want to take them out on the road anymore. I’m guilty of doing so in the past. Because I’m so new to this trucking world who is responsible for paying these violations if I do happen to get inspected? Thanks for any feedback.

Cornelius...the point is:

HE SHOULD NOT BE TAKING THESE TRAILERS OUT ONTO PUBLIC ROADS !!! Technically they flunk a PTI.

You will NOT convince me that his status of "driver only" absolves him of accountability and/or fiduciary penalty. I'd hate to see the outcome if he were to turn a blind-eye and let the chips fall where they may.

If his employer insists, he should look for other employment.

I understand Trucking Truth is about telling the Truth and the Truth is that I deal with a lot of Small trucking companies , about 15 from different states across the continental US and pull hundreds of CDL MVRs every month so I know which violations affect the driver and which ones affect the company... does it mean that it is right to roll with some equipment that is not up to date? NO .... That violation will follow that company like a piece of hot cake and it takes 2 years for it to fall off their DOT record.

Please see the below regarding driver requirements involving inspection of commercial motor vehicles.

While the general inspection and registration requirement falls on the motor carrier, it is clearly the driver's responsibility under the regulations below to ensure compliance of the equipment with the regulations.

I'll defer to the experienced drivers, but IMHO, an expired safety inspection gives LEO a reason to pull you over and guess what he's gonna try to find?

FMCSA Regulation 392

The company is responsible for paying these violations and it affects their safety scores big time... making it almost impossible for them to get insurance , here is an example as to how the company gets affected because any failed inspection is linked to their DOT and not the driver's driving record: Thank you for the new business submission. Regret I must decline due to rapid growth, conditional rating eff 5-6-19, 5 severe violations w/2 drug violations (1-19-19 & 2-26-18) and 9 DOT reportable accidents not on loss runs.

Unfortunately xxx will not back off of their declination. They will want to see the account show significant signs of continuous improvement before considering.

I do have into xxx for consideration but unfortunately xxx will not consider due to their safety scores are still tough at this point and there are a lot of unique VIN #’s inspected – much more than the 31 units they are running. They also have a very high driver turnover/new hire percentage so at this point xxxx may be our only option. I will advise as soon as I hear back from them.

it affects them a great deal

I work for a small company and keep finding trailer with expired DOT inspection stickers on the trailers along with no trailer registrations. To the point where I don’t want to take them out on the road anymore. I’m guilty of doing so in the past. Because I’m so new to this trucking world who is responsible for paying these violations if I do happen to get inspected? Thanks for any feedback.

Cornelius...the point is:

HE SHOULD NOT BE TAKING THESE TRAILERS OUT ONTO PUBLIC ROADS !!! Technically they flunk a PTI.

You will NOT convince me that his status of "driver only" absolves him of accountability and/or fiduciary penalty. I'd hate to see the outcome if he were to turn a blind-eye and let the chips fall where they may.

If his employer insists, he should look for other employment.

I agree with Gtown. The driver is ultimately responsible for determining that the vehicle they're operating is safe and legal. It's part of the pretrip for Goodness sake. The driver may not have it go on their record but they should be the one that pays the ticket.

Unfortunately the small outfits are more interested in churning the miles than keeping up with their equipment. I plead with them to make it mandatory for their drivers to inspect their vehicles but it falls on deaf ears. I have given them the link to Daniel B's pre-trip but they are more interested in running the truck to the ground until their insurance cost catches up with them then they suddenly start acting all surprise. They don't realize that the those failed inspections makes the insurance company see them as a fatality claim waiting to happen. company A: 33 trucks ... premium: $700k why? Too many OOS out of 100 inspections ,80 with violation Company B: 100 trucks .... premium: $680k why? very low OOS out of 200 inspections , only 25 with violation

Okay.......it is still the drivers responsibility. Nobody can force a driver to drive unsafe equipment. The day I'm told to drive something that would put me OOS is the day I hand my keys to them. My safety, license and safety score are far more important to me than the inconvenience of being out of work a couple days until I can get into orientation at a more reputable company. Cornelius it is nice having you around to give another perspective with how knowledgable you are regarding insurance but at times you're providing much more information than they're asking about and the thread gets way off base from what they wanted to know and just confuses them. He wanted to know about who is responsible for the ticket and you went on about it goes on their safety record. Not the driver.

The company I drive for (as well as the megas) is VERY good at fixing equipment issues immediately. The problem is they're not able to fix something that hasn't been addressed. The group of drivers at my company are great, however I have had a couple lights out that have been overlooked. Is it my companies fault my truck didnt pass the pretrip even though they weren't made aware of it? If I leave knowing my lights are burned out and I'm issued a ticket should my company pay for that even if they weren't made aware of it? It's no secret small companies cut corners, which is 1 of the many reasons why we feel the megas are the best carriers to drive for. If they're not inspecting their vehicle I hope they continue to get put OOS and eventually end up out of the industry. There are far too many lives at stake due for a driver to be too lazy to spend 15 minutes checking their truck.