Newsletter of the Illinois Truck Enforcement Association March 2018 Letter from the President, Last month, we tackled some important issues for the trucking industry and law enforcement alike. Recently two bills were proposed in the Illinois Senate, SB3098 and SB2918. These bills will affect how the industry obtains their oversize overweight permits and the cost associated with them. SB3098 takes permitting authority away from local agencies and gives total control to the he

In November 2011, the Illinois Truck Enforcement Association launched the first installment of weekly blog posts. This first article was titled “Dirty Lyle” and it set the tone for the next six years of blog posts: police officers and truckers must work together to keep Illinois safe and make trucking profitable. Now, after more than 220,000 words in 318 articles, the weekly blog is coming to an end on this last day of 2017. But don’t think for a second the ITEA is driving of

No matter what the occupation, there are procedures for the operation. Where there are procedures, there are always holes in the application of the job. No procedure can rightly legislate every possible scenario. Where there are holes in the application, there are interpretations on how best to complete the job. When there are interpretations, there is conflict and differences of opinion. When it comes to measuring axle spacings on trucks for enforcement purposes, the appropr

Back in 1892, British songwriter Harry Dacre penned a little jingle about he and a woman named “Daisy” riding on a bicycle built for two, more commonly known as “tandem”. Ever seen a pair of horses pulling a trailer? Yep – a tandem. In truck world, a pair of axles is sometimes called a tandem, but sometimes it’s not. Sometimes a tandem is more than two axles. Either way, in the vast world of truck terminology misunderstandings, the tandem is not forgotten. This article will c

Last week, this blog began to tell the tale of a municipality struggling to accommodate a band of citizens armed with complaints regarding a new industrial development. Their concerns revolved around a potential, yet unseen, problem involving trucks using residential roads and neighborhoods to access the jobsite. This week’s article provides the conclusion as the ITEA trained police department investigates the legitimacy of the complaints. The findings from the study were exa

In 2013, Illinois was the last State in the Union to pass a law to allow concealed carry of firearms. While the debate runs hot as to the rights and wrongs of gun control, it exposed a regulatory issue not uncommon in truck world: a lack of reciprocity. Commercial vehicle regulations across the nation are mostly unified in things like fuel tax and registration fees. In recent years, there has been a new movement gaining steam in specialized transportation circles – pilot car

Look around right now. What do you see? A phone, computer, lights maybe a chair. What do all these things have in common? They were all delivered by a truck. Every product in the world at some point spent time on a truck. Those trucks were driven by talented men and women, who for one week every year get recognized. That week in 2017 was September 10th through the 16th. This may be a couple weeks late, but the ITEA would like recognize all the hard-working drivers out there.

Regardless of personal politics, the United States of America boasts a government which serves its people like none other. One such service provided is an incredibly complex, expensive and comprehensive interstate highway system. What the people of this great nation forget is that this road network is on loan. It’s open for public use for a limited time, which has an incredible impact on the carrier industry. This week’s article will look at the National System of Interstate

On June 28, 2017 Illinois State Police Officer Ryan Albin was killed in a traffic crash involving a semi-truck. This is the third traffic crash to take an Illinois State Trooper’s life in 5 years, and all three have involved a commercial vehicle. These deaths are not only a loss to the trooper’s family and the law enforcement community, but also a loss to the State of Illinois. The Illinois Truck Enforcement Association sends it deepest condolences to the families of these tr

Since the Illinois Truck Enforcement Association began in 2009, the opportunities and networking has greatly expanded. This organization now has more than 600 members and is always building momentum in Illinois as a resource for anyone involved in the trucking industry. The ITEA’s Board of Directors is constantly tasked with educational and outreach programs which not only help our members better understand truck laws, but we also help to provide perspective on how those laws

Driving an eighty-thousand-pound vehicle is not something to be taken lightly.  It takes skill, training, patience and is a huge responsibility. Understand it took the driver of this rolling mobile office far more effort than simply walking into a trucking company asking for a job.  If truck drivers are going to be held to a higher standard than the average motorist tooling down the road, shouldn’t the police officers charged with holding truckers accountable be held to a hig

In 2004, there was no bigger animated film than The Incredibles. The evil antagonist Syndrome, a self-made, artificial “superhero”, created technology which would grant any average person superhero powers. He justified his insanity by claiming “when everyone’s super, no one will be”. Syndrome’s warped ideology is a caricature of many things, truck law being one example. The article this week will look at how watering down laws makes them practically pointless in an effort to

Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase: “It’s better to be judged by 12 then carried by 6.”  This refers to the hope the decisions you make may save your life, but could put you in legal jeopardy.  The vast majority would agree with the idea.  But what about those CDL drivers whose poor safety record reflects their poor driving ability?  Or those survivors that have been impacted by inexperienced CDL drivers?  Newly proposed FMCSA regulations are attempting to rein in the inexperien

Several years back, a stereo company produced a commercial to advertise the audible power of their stereo systems.  It featured what appeared to be two business men dressed in black suits driving a luxury vehicle.  The driver put a CD in the stereo and ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ by Queen came on.  The commercial goes on to show the superior sounds the speakers are producing.  The camera eventually pans out so the audience can see the men are driving the lead hearse in a fun

There’s nothing quite like working hard for your money, saving and getting to a secure place in your finances, or even if you have to declare yourself in bankruptcy you can get bankruptcy lawyers to help you with this. The reality is most Americans don’t ever reach this goal because each time an increase is gained, an unexpected hand reaches into their pocket. When the bigger fish takes a monetary bite out of a smaller fish, it hurts. Guess what? On December 10th, 2015 the Fe

There’s old expression called “getting the cart ahead of the horse”. In the modern world, the horse represents the truck, and the cart is the trailer. It’s always a bad situation when a non-motor vehicle leads the power unit. Legislation can be like that too. In Washington DC, legislators are crafting a new truck length bill which exceeds industry standards, while back home in Illinois legislators are just trying to get truck length law out of the 1950s! At the federal level,

If you were more than an infant in 1980s or earlier, the year 2000 seemed like an age away. The average American thought people would be traveling in flying cars and have robot maids. Humans have advanced technologically since then, but driverless cars are still a good decade or two away, at least car owners are able to get the best remote start system. What will never change, however, is the need for brakes on vehicles. Trailers need brakes sometimes, and the article this we

When a typical American hears the word “jeep”, they immediately think of the iconic 4-wheel drive utility vehicle. These stalwarts represent the golden era of ingenuity which encompassed the United States before and during the Second World War. The article this week is not about sport utility vehicle jeeps, but rather a different kind of jeep used by the specialized transportation industry. A couple weeks ago, the ITEA published an article titled Axle Folly. In narrative was

Now that Super Bowl XLIX (and the halftime show) is done, America can also get busy forgetting the buzzword of January 2015 “deflate-gate”. Was it intentional? Was it not? Does it matter either way? The jury is out. There are plenty of football blogs to read about on that topic, but what this blog will inflate this week is what the law says about tires in Illinois, and what that means for enforcement of trucks. First things first. There are two sets of laws regarding tires. F

Think back to a time earlier in the year when the sun was out, the air was warming, the trees were turning green. As you walked past the pear tree in your backyard, you took a piece of the fruit, ate it and instantly died. Why? Because the fruit was poison, that’s why. When it comes to enforcing laws, police officers have to be aware of the “fruit of the poisonous tree” doctrine. There are a host of laws specific to tow-trucks, but they are easily poisonous fruit, and the art