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Sometimes I’m not sure if we are lucky or just good, but again this year, mother nature sure cooperated for our Annual DOT Seminar. In 2017, on February 24th, it was 60 degrees and above. This year, the day started off with similar weather but dropped to the 40’s quickly. Luckily, our seminar was all indoors, so the weather was no problem.
Sergeant Steve Flower of Troop A Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Unit gave the presentation. Steve is an extremely knowledgeable and intelligent man. His speaking skills are some of the best I have ever experienced. He captivated the audience and had their attention throughout the entire seminar, which was almost 3 ½ hours long.
The day went super smooth. The shop was clean and tidy (if you have ever worked in a shop, you know this can be a big task to accomplish). It was a ton of work cleaning, preparing and setting up for the day. It also delayed our day to day operation in the shop for over a day, in order to set up a lunch and conference room.
Prior to the seminar, we had seating for almost 80 people in the 2 bays of the shop. Bev (Dean’s wife) brewed up a huge batch of homemade chili and Jeni (Dean’s daughter) grilled hundreds of hot dogs. Along with the help of Dean’s other daughter, Katie, the girls served a hearty and delicious lunch for about 105 people. A special thanks to them and all of the other staff members for their hard work on this busy day!
After lunch was completed, we began the seminar, in bay 3, at 1 pm. My grandson, Zachary and I got the meeting started by welcoming everyone and thanking them for attending. My little sidekick had to hang with me throughout most of the event. Before Sergeant Flower began his presentation, I cautioned the audience not to “shoot the messenger” as some of the laws that must be enforced are not the officer’s decisions and they do not always agree with them. They are simply doing their job.
Topics that were covered included, but were not limited to:
- Determining the type of carrier
- Licensing & driver requirements
- CDL Flowchart
- Driver logs & HUT
- Trailer & Power unit requirements
- Mock DOT Inspection
Throughout the entire seminar, attendants were encouraged to ask questions about any topic they did not understand or if they had a specific question in regards to a topic. Many of the questions had answers that were not ideal per the customers, but the correct answers were given. While the first portion of the seminar was given, the “lunch room” portion of the shop was emptied. They then pulled a truck and trailer combination in the shop with a large skid steer loaded and secured down.
The group was given a second break. After the break, Sgt. Flower then began his inspection of this combination commercial vehicle. He went over each step with the group. He asked the group questions as if they were the DOT Officers completing the inspection. He had the group give the correct answer to all of his inspection questions, which really reinforced the presentation.
The final step of the meeting was going over load securement. Many examples were presented with tying down of the skid loader. As before, Sgt. Flower fielded many questions. This was a real work out for the presenter. Thank you to all that attended and special thanks to Sergeant Steve Flower.
The meeting ended around 4:30 pm and the DTW staff had to prepare the facility for routine work the next day. Many thanks to our staff, it was all done by quitting time! Great work, Team!
If you are interested in being contacted the next time we host a DOT Meeting, please contact us to be added to the list.
Did you attend our DOT Meeting? If so, we would love to hear your feedback so we can continue to make your experience even better next time! Thank you in advance for completing this survey!
