New Truck Driver, Help Please! Given Ticket For Non-compliance And Violation

Hello, I am the wife of a new trucker out of Coastal North Carolina. My husband is prior military, prior GS, prior district manager, etc and so on... I could start with a backstory but to keep this short and on topic, my husband has never had a driving ticket, EVER. He gets into trucking has permit and a variety of endorsements, through C.R. England, gets his CDL. After training with another new guy, new guy left, finished training with pneumonia which sent him home for a couple weeks, etc (Insert here all type of stories, fiascos, etc to this point) He has ended up solo. Truck he is driving was picked up by his “ex-partner” who abandoned him. As it was truck had issues, anyway, after partner left, he has been driving solo. Let’s just cut to now, after all the weather issues he has dealt with, he has now picked up load moving from Washington to Southern California. He has been stopped for going past a weigh station which he did not see due to it being on the opposite side of highway and “obscured from vision” and his Qualcomm did not alert him to it coming up. As he was getting this non-compliance ticket, the officer asked him how many chains he had with him. My husband told him 4. He was then wrote a ticket for violation and told he is supposed to have 7. This is not something that was gone over in training nor was it something his trainer went over. It also is not on his Pretrip checklist as to the amount of chains he should have, nor is there an inventory list in the truck as to what should be in the truck. As he was given the tickets the officer told him to turn around and go back to the weigh station, as he did traveling on the north bound highway, the Qualcomm then alerted him to the station. After going over citations etc with guy at station, he was told that he can be stopped and cited again for not having the chains. First question is, is he responsible for stopping at a station that is set for a particular direction of traveling? And if so, if he didn’t see it due to it being obscured nor was alerted about it, what can he do? Next question, without being told about the chains nor it being part of training, etc, is he responsible for not having them or is that on the company? (For anyone who is familiar, this is at the Goldendale weigh station in Washington state.) He did sign up for a legal aid option from his company for $3 a month. The ticket says he must communicate with the court within 15 days. If anyone has advice I would appreciate it. This is kind of the last straw for us. Along with the very long list of other things that my husband has been put through, this is making him feel like he needs to eat this “school tuition loan” and leave the trucking industry. We can’t really afford that, on top of him being a 100% disabled veteran, we are tight, the whole reason he looked into this in the first place. I truly wish he had known about C.R. England’s business practices prior to signing on. Regardless, we need help in how to deal with the violations AND if anyone can help in how he can get out of this obligation with C.R. England, I would highly appreciate it! I have since been researching them and have read many posts and have found many lawsuits. I wish we had found much of this information much earlier.

Hi roadrunner,

I would tell your husband that if wants to continue with his driving career he needs to take it more seriously with more focus.

There's absolutely no excuse for blowing past a weigh station. There are signs for miles with blinky lights with neon open/ close signs.

As far as chains he knew enough to have them, but not the right number. It's really unacceptable.

You need to contact the legal service you paid for to see if they can help you.

Also, most companies will blacklist you from getting a job in trucking if you do not pay back your loan or meet your obligations from other companies.

Show me a major carrier that does not have negative reviews posted online, and show me one that hasn't seen several legal battles.

Does he own a Motor Carriers Road Atlas, such as the edition updated yearly by Rand McNally? All of these items he was cited for are listed there.

As a Commercial Driver, he will be held to a higher standard. Part of this is at least being aware that there will be weigh stations, and the western states have chain laws during the winter. I know of several states that have large signs at their border addressing the chain laws, including California.

How is CRE, or Qualcomm at fault for him not paying attention until after the fact?

With regard to noticing the weigh station, there are white "weigh station" advance warning signs in each direction and then "truck permit/state patrol" signs at each intersection (two separate entrances depending on the direction of travel).

With regard to state chain laws, see the links below.

https://www.trucking.org/ATA%20Docs/What%20We%20Do/Trucking%20Issues/Documents/Engineering/Chain%20Laws%20-March%202014.pdf

More User Friendly State Chain Laws

If he's going to California, he might need eight.

So, Sid, he didn’t “blow past” a station. There was one sign he saw when he first got back on the highway and it didn’t say “where” or how far ahead the stop was. He kept looking and did not see the entrance for it. As he has been sitting there, he has seen 5 other truckers stopped. I think this must be a “trap” area. He took pictures, it is impossible to see where this station is from his side of the highway. He has taken this entire process seriously and has always been nothing but above board professional with every position he has ever held. PackRat, he had whatever the truck was issued with. This is not his truck. He was given training as to what was supposed to be done during pretrip/post trip, he was left with this truck when his driver-partner left him. That is the person that “checked out” the truck. And at NO TIME has anyone told him he was supposed to have 7 chains. If his company was sending him to an area where he was supposed to have more chains, they should have provided them. My husband says he can understand them feeling as though he should have paid more attention to where the weigh station was but it still remains, he still has been left on his own to figure out things that should have been gone over in training or even OTR training with a trainer. He would never have known that the Qualcomm doesn’t alert you to every station OR the chains policy if he hadn’t have been stopped. Yes, he will contact an attorney.

he still has been left on his own to figure out things that should have been gone over in training or even OTR training with a trainer. He would never have known that the Qualcomm doesn’t alert you to every station OR the chains policy if he hadn’t have been stopped.

Roadrunner, we get it. We're all drivers ourselves. There's nothing easy about starting a trucking career. In fact most of it is learned on our own. Training in trucking is not like training at most other jobs. There's just no economical way to teach a new driver every single thing he has to know. It's short and not so sweet, but most of us figure out how to deal with it. We love the career enough to teach ourselves the things that weren't covered.

We've pretty much all been through that weigh station, and were able to get in and out unscathed. It's a job that requires intense concentration and requires a great deal of situational awareness. We understand how a new driver could miss that one. It's okay, as long as he learned something from the experience.

I still learn stuff everyday out here. Each day brings new experiences that heighten my awareness of how to operate more safely and efficiently. It's a lifelong pursuit. There's not a trucking company on earth that can prepare a new driver for all the curve balls he will face when he's out here on the road.

Each state has different requirements for the number of chains they want on your truck. Some states don't require them at all. Others require up to eight. That's the driver's responsibility. No one holds our hands. There's just no faking it in trucking. We figure it out and we try to help each other. I know you guys are feeling burned, but try to look at it differently. The law enforcement guys just helped you learn something. That's got value to it. Try to learn from this instead of feeling bitter and wanting to quit.

The last thing you want to do is reinforce your wounded feelings by looking up other complainers on line. You will build for yourself a false reality that's solely based on information from people who are quitters. Look, there's volumes of misinformation about trucking on the internet. There's thousands of frivolous lawsuits filed against trucking companies. Haven't you noticed all the lawyers advertising on billboards about going after trucking companies? It's become their favorite past time. If you trust what's on the internet, you'll quickly become part of the crowd that believes every trucking company hates their drivers, and tries to do everything they can to make their lives miserable. Please don't jump in that silly parade!

Are you aware that C.R. England has a great group of long time driving associates who are multi-million mile drivers? Can you imagine that? How can that be? According to all reports on-line they are the devil's first cousins and they treat everyone inhumanely. It's all a bunch if nonsense written by people who had false expectations about a trucking career. The people who write that nonsense are people who failed at trucking. Don't fall prey to their foolishness.

You guys need to buckle down and honor your commitment to C.R. England. They did what they promised you. They helped you get your CDL , they gave you a job, and they were helping you get started in a rewarding and lucrative career. You made an honest mistake and got a ticket. That's no reflection on them. If you can't see that, we probably can't help you. I'm hoping we can. Please, hang in there and stay in contact with us. We know the path to success at this. Right now you took a wrong turn. We can help you get back on track.

There was one sign he saw when he first got back on the highway and it didn’t say “where” or how far ahead the stop was. He kept looking and did not see the entrance for it.

US97 southbound approaching Goldendale, WA

Roadrunner, I'm sorry your husband had such a hard go of it to start. The learning curve is steep for new drivers. Unfortunately, your husband learned a valuable lesson the hard way. As a professional truck driver, he needs to learn to pay attention to all signage. In addition to weight stations, he needs to watch for weight/length restrictions, height clearances, etc.

As Old School said, we're all drivers and we've all been there. Some of us just got lucky and had easier lessons.

Sign at the turn:

He has been stopped for going past a weigh station which he did not see due to it being on the opposite side of highway and “obscured from vision” and his Qualcomm did not alert him to it coming up.

First question is, is he responsible for stopping at a station that is set for a particular direction of traveling? And if so, if he didn’t see it due to it being obscured nor was alerted about it, what can he do?

(For anyone who is familiar, this is at the Goldendale weigh station in Washington state.)

He must have been going southbound on US 97. Here is the sign. It doesn't look obscured and you can see the left turn lane not too much further on. From what I understand from a recent thread, if there is a weigh station then you pull your commercial vehicle in unless you are instructed not to, i.e. the station is closed or PrePass waves you through.

There was one sign he saw when he first got back on the highway and it didn’t say “where” or how far ahead the stop was. He kept looking and did not see the entrance for it.

He saw the sign, but didn't see the weigh station and so kept on driving? Or was this after he was pulled into the station? If that is the case, then how could he not know where the entrance was?

Thank you, Turtle Protege, Old School and Turtle! Thank you for the signs. yes, my husband said he realizes he missed a couple after he went back. Just not seen as he was looking for the actual turn. The fact that it was to the left which was different than normal and again, the road he was going to turn down looked like a by street so he kept going thinking it was further. It was immediate past that he was stopped. As to the chains, still, if he needed that many, the company should have made sure he was aware before giving him a load there. Even a, “Hey, pickup is here and make sure your truck is equipped with # because it is state law”. Probably right though, this just might not be for him. He will do his time because otherwise they will charge an ungodly amount for subpar training. And of course, not being able to prepare an employee for every single situation might pass with another industry but really, in trucking, yes, they should. The company should supply you with the tools you need to do the job they have “trained” you to do. That is supposedly why he was out with a trainer. This, again, is just one incident from his experiences with this company. I am exhausted to even begin to go over each thing that he has been through. He still hasn’t been given copies of the contract he signed. His pay does not reflect his logs and he keeps being told “that should be in the next”. (But it’s not) He had to go back on the road before his pneumonia was gone, then got a full blown case of bronchitis as well. He has had to see urgent cares across the country because he wasn’t close to a VA. Telling them that he is still sick and needs to get home to his doctor who wants another chest x-ray has fallen on deaf ears. He has had a request in for home time for the last 3 weeks and still not even close. Anyway, thanks, i appreciate any input. I may seem sour about this whole thing but truly, it isn’t just this. I don’t think this company was the one for him, I think we have a lot to discuss.