Ohio Commercial Vehicle Enforcement is out on the prowl today along the I 75 corridor. A Commercial Vehicle Enforcement officer is located at the north bound I 75 rest area near mile marker 81. Officers have been targeting truckers along I 75 and pulling them off into the rest areas. Officers are also reported to pull truckers over at exit 74. They escort the drivers off the exit to the road alongside Wal-Mart for vehicle inspections. The only consolation is that if a driver or his vehicle is placed out of service, there is an Outback Steak House on the road. We suggest that if you are traveling the I 75 corridor, you get your paperwork in order.

Tags: Ohio Commercial Vehicle Enforcement

As an alignment expert and owner of LaserLine, Inc., I’ve gotten used to being asked a lot of questions about truck alignment. Two of the most pressing questions I’m asked are what affects fuel mileage and how can we, with alignment, diminish or lessen those forces that rob us of fuel efficiency?

Let’s start where we should, at the beginning, which, fittingly, is the front of the truck. Barring any suspension damage, the only thing on the front of the truck, or the bobtail, which I will subsequently refer to as “the power unit,” that can affect the fuel mileage would be the toe setting. Toe can be imagined as a set of skis- let’s say your steer tires are skis.
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Tags: Truck Alignment, Fuel Mileage, Fuel Efficiency, Suspension Damage, Toe Setting

Every day its seems like there are more trucks on the road. And every night, it seems like there are more trucks trying to park in the truck stops- and not enough parking spots to accommodate them. When truckers are tired, they need to park. Hours of Service legislation requires a 10 hour break, and when enough 10 hour breaks overlap, parking becomes scarce.

One option for truckers is parking at weigh stations. Some states allow it, some don’t. It’s best to know ahead of time so that, if you can’t find a parking spot at the truck stop, you can have a backup plan! In Scalehouses and Parking, Part I, we covered California, Georgia, Florida and Kentucky weigh stations. This article covers Arkansas, Connecticut, Michigan, South Carolina and Wyoming.
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Rumor has it that on April Fool’s Day (April 1st), truckers are shutting down to protest high fuel prices.

Fuel prices are sky high. There’s no question about that. But what are struggling owner operators to do about it? Complain to each other on the c.b. radio? Lose their trucks? Cry?

Many truckers are planning to shut down from Tuesday, April 1, to Friday, April 4, 2008 (the dates vary from source to source, but the 1st through 4th is the general consensus). It’s being called a “fuel shut down” or “trucker strike” (though it’s not a traditional strike). It’s not much, but it’s something. And frustrated truck owners are looking for something to do about fuel prices.
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Tags: Fuel Prices, Owner Operators, Fuel Shut Down, Trucker Strike, Truck Owners

The rest area at mile marker 31 on I 86 west bound in American Falls, Idaho, has DOT set up inside and they are working hard! This is not a permanently marked weigh station location- it’s just a rest area. Idaho State Police and Port of Entry mobile units have set up signs telling motorists that ALL TRUCKS MUST ENTER. When a truck pulls in, one officer is heading to the cab to inspect paper work while two other officers look over the truck and trailer for safety violations. The focus is mainly on commodity haulers- potatoes and the like- but ALL TRUCKS are required to stop a the rest area. Better make sure your book is in order and your paper work is straight!

There is a rumor that this inspection is part of a 72-hour-style DOT crack down, but, according to officers at the Ports of Entry, State Police and the Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Headquarters, there is no official or state-wide crack down in effect. Rumors are sometimes more exciting than facts!

Want to receive weigh station alerts in your email? We send out weigh station alerts to our Coops News newsletter subscribers. If you know anyone who would like to receive Weigh Station Alerts, please help get the word out. And, as always, if you see increased weigh station or inspection activity, keep us informed!

Tags: Idaho State Police, Port Of Entry, Safety Violations, DOT Crack Down, Commercial Vehicle Enforcement, Weigh Station Alerts

There’s a lot of hubbub about APUs (Auxiliary Power Units- or generators) these days. Yes, the federal government is allowing up to 400 lbs for trucks with APUs- or any device used to reduce fuel use and emissions. It’s part of the idling reduction strategy- to encourage truckers and trucking companies to install APUs. But that doesn’t mean you can always get it.
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Tags: APU, Auxiliary Power Units, Federal Government, Idling Reduction

Thank you for listening to John’s interview with Evan Lockridge today on Sirius Radio, Road Dog Trucking channel 147 (the Lockridge Report airs weekdays 2 pm eastern/1 pm central). We’d like to welcome you to The Coops Community. Feel free to leave comments on weigh station pages and articles, to join in the conversation in the message board, and to drop us a note with questions or concerns by using the “contact us” form.

As an edit, we’d like to mention an omission. During the interview, Evan asked about our staff. We neglected to mention our message board moderator “Russellmania” who volunteers much of his time helping us to keep the message board free of spam and keeping the website up to date.

Those of you looking to join in the Weigh Station Alert system will need to sign up for the free CoopsAreOpen.com Newsletter. The newsletter goes out the 1st of every month and shows updates to the site and other items of interest that you won’t necessarily otherwise learn of. Weigh Station Alerts go out when we get them. If we see DOT working hard or if a driver informs us of a DOT crack down, we send out an alert so that you can be prepared. We need your eyes and ears to let us know what’s going on- we can’t be everywhere!

As a result of the news story run by Austin, Texas, NBC affiliate KXAN about CoopsAreOpen.com, there are some rumors floating around.

One of these rumors is that Texas DOT is looking for us (and by us, I mean us here at CoopsAreOpen). They’re not. If they were, we’re easy to find. Just click “Contact Us” and send us a message.

Another one of these rumors is that CoopsAreOpen.com is giving truckers a bad name. We’re not. We provide truckers with as much information as possible about weigh stations, rules and regulations, and enforcement procedures. Information doesn’t give truckers a bad name. Organizations like CRASH and PATT aren’t going to like truckers whether we provide the information or not.

For those of you who’d like the real scoop about CoopsAreOpen.com, come look through the site, leave comments, contact us, and join our message board. You’ll find out that we provide you with a platform to share your knowledge and to learn from what others know.
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Tags: Texas DOT, Weigh Stations, Rules And Regulations, Enforcement Procedures, Truckers

If you park in a Massachusetts service plaza at the start of a long trip, you’d better hope you’ve got someone at home watching your mail for you!

Considering the lack of truck parking in New England, we think the Massachusetts State Police is playing a dirty trick on truckers who are parked in service plazas. If they want to issue parking citations, they should inform the trucker he should expect a ticket in the mail or issue a warning only ticket. Mailing tickets with extremely small response margins to over-the-road truckers without warning is simply another way to squeeze money out of truckers through late fees.

Even if you don’t have a parking ticket waiting for you when you wake up or return to your truck, you may have a ticket waiting in your mailbox. And if you don’t respond to the mailed ticket within 20 days of the violation, you may have late charges to deal with- the instance discussed here did not result in late charges, but a longer delay in payment might.
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Tags: Truck Parking, Massachusetts State Police, Service Plazas, Parking Citations, Over-the-road Truckers, Parking Ticket

You’ll find plenty of articles out there giving advice on how to get a better job in trucking. This one focuses on how to ensure you’ll get one you’ll hate (or wind up hating the one you’ve got). The 7 steps here are guaranteed to land you a trucking job you’ll hate.
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