[AT] DOT Question

Wed Dec 27 04:34:48 PST 2006

About 30 years ago I bought a GMC cab over tractor.  One of those aluminum 
cabs that was commonly called a "cracker box".  I had been driving for 
someone else and this was my first try at "owner operator".

I wrote the guy a check for it, called my insurance agent and told him to 
cover it for me and headed for home with no plates.  I got to the local 
truck stop where all of us parked our  trucks.  When I walked in the store a 
friend of mine said "come on, you've got a load to haul.".  I told him I 
couldn't go that I didn't have any license.
He said "you aren't going to turn down your first job are you?"
It was about 6 in the afternoon.  I thought for a second and decided he was 
right.  I shouldn't turn down my first job and off I went.

The tractor had belonged to a contractor and he just hadn't been using it. 
The plate on the front had been expired for about 3 years.
We went down the road about 20 miles and I hooked to a van loaded with 
veneer that belonged to Georgia Pacific.   About 4 hours later I was 
following the other guy through the small town of Ahoskie NC.  He cut a 
yellow light.  I didn't know where we were going.  The guy was a good guy 
but a bit of a practical joker and I knew he wouldn't wait for me so I ran 
the red.  The streets were rolled up in that little town and there wasn't a 
car in sight except that cop that was hiding behind a bush.

The cop was a young guy.  He ran the plate on the trailer an he kept asking 
me who owned the truck.  I kept telling him I did.  He kept telling me the 
plate came back to Georgia Pacific Corp.  I kept telling him that was the 
trailer plate.  He kept asking me where the tractor plate was.  I told him 
on the tractor.  I never told him it was supposed to be on the front of the 
tractor.  I never told him the title hadn't been transfered yet.  I just 
kept telling him the tractor plate was on the tractor.  He never got out to 
look.  He was scratching his head.  I was standing in the street.  He was 
sitting in his cruiser with the FM radio turned up so he could hear his 
music.  Finally I said.  "Look,  I was following that truck in front of me. 
I don't know where to unload without following him and now he's gone and I'm 
lost.  That's why I ran the light to begin with.  If you're going to write 
me a ticket figure out what you're going to write it for and get it done. 
Otherwise let me go so I can get back to work."    Danged if he didn't tell 
me to go ahead!

About 20 miles up the road where I needed to turn the other guy was sitting 
by the road waiting for me.

Charlie
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve W." <falcon at telenet.net>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Wednesday, December 27, 2006 1:45 AM
Subject: Re: [AT] DOT Question

> You were lucky, AS USUAL.... I usually got the guy who's wife was screwing 
> around behind his back, his favorite dog just got hit by a truck and he 
> had cold coffee to drink...
>
>
> Francis Robinson wrote:
>> So far I have found most cops to be pretty reasonable including DOT. Of
>> course there are always a few that are a 4-wheeled ego trip but not that
>> many.
>> Some years ago I was pulled over by a lady DOT officer while on US-41 
>> over
>> on Indiana's south west coast that was so pretty that she was almost hard 
>> to
>> talk to.   ;-)   She was just wanting to know why the ton dually PU 
>> didn't
>> have a plate. I explained that it was plated as a semi apportioned out of
>> Iowa and that I had left the trailer at the test plot site. I showed her 
>> the
>> paper work and said the truck plate was on the front as we were 
>> instructed
>> to mount it. She went up front to look and oops... I did not know that 
>> the
>> guy I was working with had mounted the "oversized load" sign right over 
>> the
>> top of it.   ;-)   She was quite good-natured about it and after she
>> determined that it was in fact there she let me go on without even asking 
>> me
>> to move the sign.
>> Another time on Indiana's south east coast a lady DOT officer noticed 
>> that
>> the company had allowed our plate to expire. She wrote me a ticket that I
>> paid out of pocket to keep the rig out of impound. She then told me that 
>> she
>> was required to tell me that I must proceed to the next exit and park the
>> rig and call for someone to come and get me. She then spoke very quietly 
>> and
>> said that she had to tell me that but that she definitely would not radio
>> ahead and let anyone know I was going that way. She said that if I got
>> stopped on down the road that I would get another ticket but whether I
>> parked or drove on home was really up to me...   I made tracks for 
>> home...
>> ;-)   The Iowa office paid me back for the ticket.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> "farmer"  -  ***** H A P P Y   H O L I D A Y S *****
>>
>> If you cut a tree plant at least two to replace it...
>>
>> Francis Robinson
>> Central Indiana, USA
>> robinson at svs.net
>>
>>
>>
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