My First Inspection

Exited the interstate onto the road my customer was on, saw a trooper behind a BT on the shoulder, and he got out of his squad and motioned me in behind him. I thought ohhhh great, hah.

He walked up, said something along the lines of, "Hi, I'm Trooper ... and I'm going to inspect you today. It'll be easy, I'm not getting under the truck."

He asked for my license, tractor registration and insurance. He asked how I log, and when I said ELD he said please show it to me (specifically, the graph, just for today). He wanted to see that I had paper logs in case the ELD goes down. He wrote down info from the truck and trailer and inside the door frame. I think that's it. Then back to his squad to write it all up.

All in all, 23 minutes of time, a clean Level 3, and I was on my way.

When I went past the BT the curtains were closed, so maybe he was checking on why it was parked there and decided to knock out a quick one while he was there.

ps: recently in a thread about the blitz, my sense of time was off and I said five and a half months with no inspections. It was four and a half then, now five and a week, with one clean inspection for my record!

Congrats on passing your 1st inspection. Some people get all worked up over these. It’s no written anywhere inspections have to occur at scale houses. In reality these types are more common.

I used to run a route regularly and there was on spot you knew a young officer would be setting. He stopped me and gave me a spot inspection just like you experienced. It’s mostly about numbers. In 3 years he stopped me 2 additional times in the exact same spot.

My insurance agent is a retired captain for GA DOT. He has actually called me a couple times and asked me to volunteer for an inspection. Both times officers he knows were in the area and were looking to get their numbers up. I wasn’t around but would have been happy too.

Clean inspections do a couple things. Yes for the state it raises the numbers, but the trucking company gets a benifit in that it helps their csa score.

That's interesting PJ, I thought roadside ones were the result of being pulled over for something. Now I know it can happen any time, anywhere!

That's interesting PJ, I thought roadside ones were the result of being pulled over for something. Now I know it can happen any time, anywhere

Getting pulled over certainly increases the likelihood.

A driver I speak to regularly, got pulled over for a Hazmat inspection a couple months ago. State trooper told him "I saw the placards and want to see if everything is in order". His computer system crashed, so my buddy had a very brief inspection but passed.

Glad he passed. When asked for paper logs I realized they were in my drawer by the bunk. Now they ride in the cubby above my driver seat with other important paperwork so next time everything I need is available without getting up.

I carry the blank paper logs in my permit book, along with the long form of my current physical.

My blank paper logs are in the permit book next to the eld cheat sheet.

I keep everything in the permit book. I'm always nervous when they pull me. Seems like every one I get is in Kentucky. Got a level 1 there last week. Guy was laughing at me I was so nervous.