12/21/07 A successful voluntary truck inspection program

Washington Ag December 21, 2007 Loggers do it. Why not farmers? Do what? Participate in a voluntary truck inspection by the Washington State Patrol to make sure their vehicles are in compliance with rules and regulations on safety. WSP Trooper Kevin Clark explains. Clark: "The logging industry for example, we currently do voluntary safety inspections in the spring of every year, which has been very well received throughout the state. They all bring their trucks in. They get them inspected before they get very active in the business. We are hoping that we can develop that kind of relationship with the agricultural industry and put something together in the future here and offer that to them as well." But if you voluntarily show up for the inspection and your truck is out of compliance will you get ticketed? No, says Trooper Clark. Clark: "We won't right them tickets. We will make them fix things that need to be fixed. If they have serious violations, what we do with the loggers is they have to fix it there or make arrangements to have it fixed at wherever the inspection location is." If violations are minor Clark says truck owners are allowed to go home and fix those. Trooper Clark participated in an educational workshop on transportation at the recent Pacific Northwest Grains Conference in Spokane. I'm Bob Hoff.