The POE

This is Travis and I've been wanting to post some pics of where I work (click on them to see them bigger). This is the Farewell Bend Port of Entry (hereafter POE) and that is the view out my window everyday - the Snake River lazily making its way to Hell's Canyon. Back in 1990 we rafted this same stretch of the Snake River and it was AWESOME!!!

At the POE, we do size and weight enforcement. Trucks can only weigh so much and be so big without getting into trouble. We enforce Federal and State laws and we are basically the truck police, except that we can't carry guns, arrest people, or do most other things that police do. But we do write tickets! (Lots and lots of tickets!!!) I truthfully joke that I love the sound of the citation printer printing.... it means another "bad guy" caught breaking the law in a big way.

I also work a lot of overtime doing truck inspections. Currently, 1 in 4 trucks has a mechanical defect of some kind (some trucks with many more than just one), and we also inspect drivers to make sure that they should even be on the road. Sadly there are many truck drivers out there that have no business being behind the wheel of a 80,000-105,000 pound truck.

We don't just work at the POE. To mix things up, we have several scales that we work. We have a scale across the highway on I-84 eastbound (where we write lots of tickets). We also have a scale in Vale, in Baker City, in Nyssa, in John Day, and one in Burns Junction in southeastern Oregon - and those are all just in our District.

I get lots of satisfaction knowing that in some way I am making the roads safer for everyone traveling on them. Last week I found a guy that had been driving 15.75 hours that day (drivers are only allowed 11 a day) and was planning on driving all the way to Grandview,WA (another 4 hours) without stopping to rest, dropping his load there, and then returning to Arkansas to be there for the start of the Labor Day weekend. I took great delight in pulling him off the road and shutting him down for a mandatory 10 hour rest period AND citing him for exceeding the allowed daily drive time. He didn't have the self-control to stop himself, so I stepped in and stopped him before he and his truck potentially caused a tragic accident. One of the best inspectors in the State reminds me that we will never know this side of heaven how many accidents we prevent, nor how many lives we save.