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Scalehouse Blues
The view from the chicken coop
By Michael Perry
"Driver, pull in the back lot and bring in all your paperwork."
Kinda puts a little bounce in your blood pressure, a little grind in your gut, doesn't it? Six days on the road, you were gonna make it home tonight, now you're beached behind the chicken coop, scrabbling around in your wallet, hopin' to heck all your taillights work and you can find your medical card. Why, oh why, is the DOT pickin' on me?
If you want the scoop, you gotta go to the coop. So Road King sent me westbound on Interstate 94 to the Rusk scale, just a tad east of Menomonie, Wis., where I spent the night tagging along with Wisconsin State Patrol Inspector Dori Petznick. She is a 12-year veteran of the force, energetic and firm but polite when dealing with drivers. When her partner, Jean Marcelin, hit the button to activate the dreaded "OPEN" sign out on the interstate, Petznick headed outside with her flashlight, ready for a night of what she called "bumper-jumpin'."
Within minutes, a line of headlights began peeling off the highway and up to the scales. For the next seven-and-a-half hours, Petznick and Marcelin were on the move non-stop, running in and out of the coop to inspect rigs, check log books, run computer checks, and churn through paperwork. The officers see their job as, ultimately, saving lives — truckers' lives, motorists' lives, even their own lives. My job was to see what insights I could glean from the inspectors' perspective. Here's what I learned:
Someone told the DOT about Channel 19! It was astounding to listen to the traffic on Channel 19 from trucks approaching the coop. Drivers announced their violations, or — in one case — called the guy ahead in line to point out his violations. The officers stay tuned to Channel 19, and Petznick says you'd be surprised what they hear. "Guys will come on and admit their log book isn't caught up, so we'll get on the CB and say, 'Who you with, driver?' and they'll tell us!" she says in awe.
Another bit of advice. Truckers frequently look through the window and then use Channel 19 to share their observations about the DOT staff. More than once Petznick has listened to some trucker describe her in some detail, and question whether a little blonde lady knows anything about trucks. One suspects that driver will have a better-than-average opportunity to find out.
The best way to avoid being caught in the coop? If you're overweight or have an obvious equipment problem, you'll likely get pulled. But anything you do to avoid the scales actually draws the enforcement officers' attention. Pulling over on the approach or steering with your knees while scribbling in a log book sets you up for closer scrutiny, as can little things like illegal lights.
"On an eight-hour day shift, we'll sometimes run 1,200 trucks through here," says Petznick. "With two people working, we'll average two inspections an hour — that means we'll be checking 16 trucks out of 1,200. Unless we see something obvious, our stops are completely random." Odds are, the best way to avoid trouble — apart from doing your best to run legal — is to simply hop in line and drive on through.
Watch Your Speed. Crossing a scale at speeds higher or lower than those posted will frequently trip the alarm, meaning you've got to circle around for one more try, and one more look.
What About Alternate Routes? Two State Patrol units dropped down to a parallel highway as soon as the Rusk scale opened, and business was brisk. Because truck traffic on the route is normally minimal, they know that most of the trucks they spot are dodging the scales, and likely for a reason.
Among their snags were an overwidth and overweight flatbed load — the driver had to park and locate a hoist to do a partial unload before he could continue — and a driver wanted on two felony warrants. The felonious driver was also driving on an invalid CDL.
To be fair to the industry in general, this gent wasn't typical, nor was he a candidate for crook of the year. When officers asked him if he had ever been arrested, he said, "No, but I am on probation." The irony for this fellow was that his truck appeared to be up to snuff; had he simply rolled through the scales he would have probably never drawn a second glance.
Careful Where You Park. The DOT knows the word about an open scale gets out pretty quickly. "After the first half hour, things will slow up dramatically," says Marcelin, as the initial slug of trucks rolled through the scales. "And, if you run back up the interstate, you'll see the truckstops are jammed."
Indeed, within 30 minutes, the truck traffic had slowed considerably. At that point, the DOT will often send a unit back up the road to see if any trucks are illegally parked on the interstate. If you need to catch your log up, find a safe, legal place to park first.
When officers approached one driver who had pulled to the side of the interstate just before the scales, he initially refused to hand over his log book, then said he had been reading a map. The delay earned him a trip to the coop, for an inspection, paperwork and a fine. When he asked why he couldn't park on the roadside, Petznick pointed to a bulletin board just inside the door. It is packed with snapshots of horrific rear-end car-truck collisions.
"Half of those accidents are because of people stopping on the side of the road," she said. The driver studied them a minute, then walked out the door.
Whoops! If you accidentally miss the scale, shut 'er down as quickly as you safely can. When a rig blew past the Rusk scale, Marcelin was out the door, in his squad car and under way before I could put my coffee down. Most inspectors will consider giving a driver a break if they think the mistake was an honest one, although as Petznick pointed out, "If you don't make 'drive-by' a penalty, why wouldn't everybody do it?" Furthermore, inspectors say experience has taught them that a "drive-by" is often a warning light, revealing a driver who is overtired, or isn't logged.
Play Nice. It was interesting to sit behind the counter and watch as drivers came through the door. That first impression won't have a substantial impact on the facts at hand, but it can contribute to the nature of the experience.
In particular, I can recall two truckers: the first came slouching in wearing a greasy cap and a T-shirt that looked like it had seen a month of deep-fried and two oil changes since its last exposure to detergent. While scrabbling around for out-of-date paperwork that looked like it had doubled as a floormat, he tried out a comedy routine, which, as it turned out, needed a lot of work.
Then he switched to grumpy excuses. "There's a lot of people doing it," he said. "Yep," said Petznick, "but you're the one I stopped." Finally, he threw up his hands and said, "I got no excuses." He spent the rest of the night in the back lot, deciphering a list of infractions.
Contrast this to the driver who walked in dressed neatly — nothing fancy, jeans and a T-shirt — with his paperwork properly arranged and prepared for inspection. Everything checked out but his hours, and he admitted — and his log book verified — that he was running about 20 minutes over. When Petznick told him he'd have to park until morning, you could tell he was hoping for other news, but he looked at the numbers once more and then simply agreed. He didn't grovel, or bluster, or try to butter anyone up. He just handled the whole thing like a pro..
Petznick didn't say so, but I suspect his professionalism may have helped streamline his visit to the coop. In contrast, not only did driver Number One hurt his cause, all his jawboning likely doubled the amount of time he had to spend standing at the counter. She did say drivers often talk themselves into trouble, such as mentioning a place they've been that's not in their .log book.
DOT people are human, too. They are, for the most part, folks just doing a job. Now, that phrase has been used to excuse a lot of nastiness throughout history, and the profession has its egotistic bad apples. But in a funny way, few people understand truckers like the DOT.
Petznick splits her time in enforcement with an active participation in the Share the Road campaign, educating schoolchildren, the public and new truckers about how to interact safely with big rigs. DOT officers are sworn to enforce rules you may not like, but I also watched as they lent a trucker a tool he needed. And, when an asphalt hauler was overweight on his drives, they discussed how the nature of his load made it virtually impossible to shift his fifth wheel enough to move the weight. They got him as close as they could, gave him a warning and sent him on his way.
"Those are tough loads," said Petznick. Whenever she put someone out of service, she explained very specifically why she was doing so, for how long, when it was OK to drive again, and closed by saying, "We'll be here all night if you need to use the phone or restroom."
"We try to keep everyone moving, too," said Petznick. "If the line gets backed up, we have an automatic close. We try to keep anyone from sitting more than 20 seconds." She has just cited and "parked" a driver who was two hours over legal. "You meet a lot of professional drivers," she says. "Like that lady I just cited — she was in violation, and she knew it. She said 'You have a job to do, and I made a mistake'."
Petznick is crisp and professional, but at the end of the shift, when we reminisce about a female trooper and friend of Petznick's killed on this interstate a few years back, her eyes brim with tears for a moment — proof there is a person working behind the badge.
Getting to know you. The DOT crew recognizes many of the "regulars." If you run a regular route and have passed an inspection with flying colors previously, your chances of rolling through unscathed the next time increase.
Every trucker faces a tremendous conglomeration of paperwork and regulation in order to run legal — to say nothing of outside pressures from shippers. Even the most conscientious professional can be caught out. It's no wonder our vital signs do a flip-flop at the sight of an open scale.
Nothing guarantees you won't get pinched, and not every officer will be as informed and polite as Dori Petznick. But if you play by the rules as best you can, and take a minute to look at yourself from a chicken coop perspective, you can increase the chances that as you roll off that scale (between 10-15 mph, please!) your pulse will slow, and up ahead you will see the three most beautiful words ever put in lights: "OK GO AHEAD."
Banana Flip
This wasn't supposed to be part of the story. But it just so happens that the night after I hung out in the chicken coop, a trucker running north with a load of bananas got sideways on the four-lane outside my hometown and rolled over in the median. I'm a firefighter and medic with the volunteer fire department, and we were quickly on the scene.
The rig was a mess — the cab crumpled and split, the trailer top rolled back like a sardine tin, banana boxes everywhere. Miraculously - and thanks to a seatbelt - the driver was unhurt. I checked her vital signs, then started to help with the cleanup. Someone said the DOT was on the way, and lo and behold, out of the mist walked Dori Petznick.
"Well, this is a coincidence!" I said, greeting her. Petznick went to work, and I took the opportunity to tag along. The first thing Petznick did was climb in the wreck to locate the log book.
"I need to be sure the driver isn't over hours," said Petznick. Then she circled the truck, performing a visual inspection and checking tire condition and tread depth. "When the wrecker arrives, we'll hook up the air and test the brakes," she said. "That's standard procedure."
Petznick was still interviewing the driver when we packed up our fire trucks and headed home, but I had seen enough to realize that while it's natural to worry about trying to pass inspection at the chicken coop or on a traffic stop, having your log book current, your hours legal and your truck in good repair takes on even greater and immediate significance if you should have the bad luck to wreck. - Michael Perry
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