Fuel for Thought

Lost My CDL

On a chilly, foggy morning just after making a quick fuel stop, I turned onto the interstate on ramp toward my pick up. Only one hour to go and I am on track to be fifteen minutes early. I see a pick up truck on the shoulder of the on ramp and as I pass it to merge onto the interstate, I notice it is a state trooper and just after I merge onto the roadway, I see the headlights of the trooper come to life, followed shortly after by the familiar blue lights racing up behind me. As I turn on my signal to pull over, I see a rest area only one half mile ahead. I decided to wait to pull over and utilize the rest area as a safer alternative to pulling onto the shoulder. Once parked and remaining buckled in, I roll down the window and await the officer. After he saw that I was buckled in, I removed the seat belt and started gathering my registration, BOL and license for him. I told him I chose to wait to pull over as this was a safer place than the shoulder of the road, he agreed. He told me he was going to perform a Level 1 inspection, so I changed my duty status to on duty and navigated to the ERODS section of my ELD and then waited for him to give me the number I needed to send him my logs. He was impressed that I knew how to send them without his instruction and said I must be a unicorn. He said only about 1 in 10 drivers knew how to send ERODS without him telling them how to do it. He took my license, used his phone to snap a pic of my BOL and then another trooper arrived. When he returned from talking to the other officer, he informed me that trooper #2 would be assisting and completing the Level 1 inspection. Awesome… two troopers, two inspectors should mean a faster inspection so I can be on my way. Lights, brakes, wipers, triangles, fire extinguisher, you know the rest. Fifteen minutes later, inspection done, no violations, now just a few minutes for paperwork. Trooper #1 left the rest to trooper #2 to close out.
Thirty minutes later, trooper #2 brings me a clean inspection form and wishes me a safe trip, however, I stopped him to inquire about my license which had not been returned. He had to call trooper #1 since he did not have my CDL. After a brief phone call with trooper #1, trooper #2 said, sure enough, trooper #1 still had my CDL with him. Trooper #2 apologized and quickly drove to wherever trooper #1 had gone to retrieve my license and return it to me. The whole encounter ended up taking about an hour. Now instead of being fifteen minutes early to my pick up, I would now be forty five minutes late. A quick call to the customer to inform him of the delay and all was right again.
While the chance meeting was unscheduled and caused me a delay, there is no reason to get upset or treat the officer(s) badly. We are both doing our jobs and this morning our jobs crossed paths.
What seemed odd to me was that so many drivers didn’t know how to perform the basic function of their ELDs to send logs to an officer roadside. I know from talking to officers whenever they stop me for inspections, they always seem guarded as to what attitude the driver may give them. It seems very common, according to those I spoke to, that more often than not, drivers have a bad demeanor when getting stopped for inspections. There is no reason to be upset or give the officer grief for doing their job. Contrary to popular belief among truck drivers, most officers are not ‘out to get you’, they are just doing their job, the same as you. Sure it can be an inconvenience at times, but you should know that it is always a possibility that you might be stopped for an inspection at any time, day or night, rain or shine, clear or foggy.
Be safe. Be courteous. Be respectful. Be patient.

Patience is not simply the ability to wait - it's how we behave while we're waiting.
-  Joyce Meyer

See you down the road,
Greg