sailquik
Well-known member
GSWatson,
How much does your Sprinter weigh?
Have you ever gone to a CAT scale and weighed it?
You may get lucky and never have an issue.
If I remember correctly, deep down in the CMV (Commercial Motor Vehicle) sections of the California
Vehicle Code, the CHP Truck Inspectors have the right to pull over any vehicle with a commercial
license plate, at any time, and if they determine that it is, in fact, being used commercially (the
USDOT ruling on this is if there is any thing for sale, and tools of a trade or an materials not being
installed in the home of the registered owner) then they can bring the full letter of the CMV laws to
bear.
This means no alcohol in the vehicle (they can impound it for 24 hours or until you bring someone else
to drive it).
This also means they can apply any of the USDOT requirements (log books/medical exam/ daily driving
hour limits)....the whole shebang as it's written in the US Code.
No one is saying that they WILL do this, only that they have the full authority to do so.
I know all this because I was ticketed by a roving CHP officer for not having a USDOT or CAL T # on my
6 ton box truck, (not being used commercially, but with an NC "weighted" plate) ostensibly because there
were a lot of out of state trucks running around in California that were in commercial service but were
not paying CAL T taxes.
So I got the USDOT # (and all that having that damnable # entails) and then the fun began.
Ultimately I sold a perfectly good 1,000,000 mile 4x4 box truck (with 450,000 miles and a brand new $13k engine
and new $2.5k rear differential) and at a huge loss because I went through a scale with a couple of bottles of
beer locked in a cooler that was locked inside the truck box.
I got the $2,500 fine set aside (cost $3,500 for the lawyer) and the lawyer went back to court to
have all traces of that ticket removed from my USDOT and Maryland driving records, but MD said they
don't remove tickets for MINOR traffic violations. The USDOT said that it would skew their enforcement
data base to remove it.
Needless to say it would have been very troublesome to continue to drive that truck if the first thing that
showed up when the weigh station or state truck enforcement officer ran the USDOT # was an alcohol citation.
They gave me a field sobriety test the night my truck was impounded and the result was 0.00.
I did not get any sort of ticket for DUI....only for carrying 2 bottles of beer, in a cooler, locked in the
back of the box truck.
Sorry to rant, but I feel it's important because when the state or federal CMV/Truck enforcement decides to
make your life miserable, it's beyond belief miserable.
Roger
How much does your Sprinter weigh?
Have you ever gone to a CAT scale and weighed it?
You may get lucky and never have an issue.
If I remember correctly, deep down in the CMV (Commercial Motor Vehicle) sections of the California
Vehicle Code, the CHP Truck Inspectors have the right to pull over any vehicle with a commercial
license plate, at any time, and if they determine that it is, in fact, being used commercially (the
USDOT ruling on this is if there is any thing for sale, and tools of a trade or an materials not being
installed in the home of the registered owner) then they can bring the full letter of the CMV laws to
bear.
This means no alcohol in the vehicle (they can impound it for 24 hours or until you bring someone else
to drive it).
This also means they can apply any of the USDOT requirements (log books/medical exam/ daily driving
hour limits)....the whole shebang as it's written in the US Code.
No one is saying that they WILL do this, only that they have the full authority to do so.
I know all this because I was ticketed by a roving CHP officer for not having a USDOT or CAL T # on my
6 ton box truck, (not being used commercially, but with an NC "weighted" plate) ostensibly because there
were a lot of out of state trucks running around in California that were in commercial service but were
not paying CAL T taxes.
So I got the USDOT # (and all that having that damnable # entails) and then the fun began.
Ultimately I sold a perfectly good 1,000,000 mile 4x4 box truck (with 450,000 miles and a brand new $13k engine
and new $2.5k rear differential) and at a huge loss because I went through a scale with a couple of bottles of
beer locked in a cooler that was locked inside the truck box.
I got the $2,500 fine set aside (cost $3,500 for the lawyer) and the lawyer went back to court to
have all traces of that ticket removed from my USDOT and Maryland driving records, but MD said they
don't remove tickets for MINOR traffic violations. The USDOT said that it would skew their enforcement
data base to remove it.
Needless to say it would have been very troublesome to continue to drive that truck if the first thing that
showed up when the weigh station or state truck enforcement officer ran the USDOT # was an alcohol citation.
They gave me a field sobriety test the night my truck was impounded and the result was 0.00.
I did not get any sort of ticket for DUI....only for carrying 2 bottles of beer, in a cooler, locked in the
back of the box truck.
Sorry to rant, but I feel it's important because when the state or federal CMV/Truck enforcement decides to
make your life miserable, it's beyond belief miserable.
Roger
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