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

The average person who sees an oversize/overweight vehicle thinks one thing: big. It’s huge. It’s a massive truck. They only say this because their point of reference is a world full of small Clasiq cars and SUVs. The truth is many oversize loads really aren’t all that big in the world of oversize loads. The presence of a pilot car is a sure sign to the lay motorist the load ahead is a big one. As in all things trucking, even pilot cars are controversial and their necessity i

In a world where speed and convenience supersedes a person’s desire to ascertain facts through proper outlets, misinformation runs rampant. What is often forgotten is even before Facebook, Twitter and other forms of social media, information was still very often misrepresented and sometimes flat out incorrect. One of the oldest forms of spreading incorrect information is through “wives’ tales.” When it comes to the world of commercial vehicle enforcement, the topic of truck r

Air-brakes.  One of the most confusing words for some truck drivers.  All drivers are expected to conduct a pre-trip inspection.  Many are even expected to know how to adjust their own slack adjusters.  But how many can tell another what the definitive criteria is when an air-brake restriction is permitted?  Wait… restriction? Isn’t it an air-brake endorsement?  Read on if you’re confused already. Everyone who has passed the CDL test, and even some of those who’ve failed, hav

Remember when Stella Liebeck spilled that hot cup of McDonald’s coffee all over her lap, burned herself and then sued for an exorbitant amount of money? Some may argue this lawsuit was the beginning of the obvious, common sense warnings we see in the world around us today. From the coffee cups with a written warning the contents are hot, to tags of dress shirts warning you not to iron while wearing it, we are surrounded by seemingly unnecessary warnings. Believe it or not, th

Let’s get back to the basics. It seems among the general trucking population, including the unschooled law enforcement officers, there’s a disconnect between those who truly need a CDL and those who do not. Despite the many resources available, everyone the ITEA encounters who has an incorrect stance on the subject has shoehorned their trucking practices into some version of the exceptions. The difficulty becomes, when you rely on others advice you’ve chatted with at the loca

Let’s play a game of word association. We’ll say a word that has to do with trucks, you respond with the first word that comes to your mind. Ready? Driver’s, LICENSE. Good work! Let’s try another: semi, TRAILER. Excellent. One more: Gross Vehicle, WEIGHT? WEIGHT RATING? That’s right. Gross vehicle weight and gross vehicle weight rating may only differ by one word, but the two totally separate things. When they are misinterpreted by policemen and truckers alike, expensive enfo

In simpler times, before the dawn of cable TV, high resolution video games and the internet, children around the nation were entertained by the Peanuts cartoon. Simple story lines, simple animation. One of the more peculiar characters was Linus. Although he was a boy genius, he still walked around with a security blanket. Sometimes laws are like security blankets, but there is nothing fun about learning the hard way how a law really didn’t protect you the way it was intended.

Have you ever thought about a word and wondered who made it up and why? The word “ceiling” is one of those nouns. It means all kinds of things. It is the limit of someone’s patience before they blow up. It is what finishes the top of an interior room. It is also the limit of what someone has to, or will choose to, pay for a specific good. In truck enforcement world, the term “ceiling” gets tossed around when it comes to how fines for overweight on registration are calculated.

On the road to maturity as a police officer, one quickly learns to quit taking things personally. Some take longer than others, but the sooner a police officer learns to judge the actions of a violator and not the actor himself, the easier life becomes. The reality is sometimes mistakes are made, but sometimes the consequences exceed the reasonableness of the offense. This can readily be seen in commercial driver’s license violations. The ITEA has a solution though…read on! E

The war on drugs. One could not invoke a law enforcement initiative with so great a political divide. The truth is, the war on drugs is hardly a war. It’s maintenance. There will never be a victor. There will never be a white flag of surrender. The idealistic goal is eradication, but the practical goal is to maintain a high quality of life for the people law enforcement serves. In paled comparison, the goal of the Illinois Truck Enforcement Association has never been to compl

Do you want to have your mind numbed? Well, there’s a lot of ways to accomplish that unlawfully, but if you want a legit method, study the requirements of commercial driver’s licenses. For years, local Illinois law enforcement received some bad advice on which criterion should be used to determine who needs a CDL and when. In those days, unauthoritative instructors taught three ways, when in actuality there was only one. Until now…there’s two! Here is what has absolutely not

It’s a truck! It’s a machine! It’s…it’s..special mobile equipment? There are few things that cause second glances from drivers than the sight of construction machines, slow moving vehicles and other strange vehicles sharing the road with regular cars and trucks. These machines are unique looking and have unique rules. Unfortunately, there is a lot of misunderstanding about what qualifies as special mobile equipment (SME) and its unique rules. Over the next two weeks thi

Welcome back! Remember the story being told last week about Bill the Trucker? Well things changed. After pretending to be an interstate carrier for about 8 months (when in reality he was an intrastate carrier), he got caught by the police. In a twist of fate, the very laws he was trying to avoid were now being enforced upon him. Shame on Bill. When you cheat the law, don’t blame the policeman that caught you. This week, the state safety inspection law will be examined and we

When the Illinois Truck Enforcement Association began in 2009, the founding members created a list of issues that law enforcement routinely was enforcing incorrectly, and set out to make it right. Many of those items have been discussed on this blog in the past such as local enforcement of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. Many of those issues have been successfully corrected through legislative action and policy administration. One of the first resource documents

Last week, the ITEA blog focused on basic information about the peculiarities of tow-truck registration. The goal of the article this week is to examine proper enforcement methods for expired tow-truck registration. With the December 31st expiration of tow-truck (TW) plates right around the corner, enforcement efforts for expired tow-truck plates will increase after the new year. There never seems to be a lack of questions, from both police and the industry, about overweight

Appropriate registration is defined as “the full annual cost of the required registration and its associated fees”. This language was added for 2012 to put a true statutory ceiling on any overweight on registration charge, but it is wholly applicable when a vehicle is discovered operating with expired registration or no registration at all. On and after July 1st, if a police officer stops a second division truck or trailer without valid 2013 registration, the entire gross we

There is no doubt the Illinois Vehicle Code does little to help sort out the nuances of CDL and registration issues.  The Administrative Code attempts to provide more clarity, but many of the rules are out of date.  Given the complexities of these topics, it is not surprising police officers make mistakes in their interpretation of SOS issues.  The ITEA has written several Standards of Practice and developed resource documents for its members in an effort to prevent errors.