Troopers, truckers cooperate to improve vehicle safety

It's not often that police show drivers what's wrong with their vehicles before they get pulled over.

But on Wednesday on Monteagle Mountain, that's exactly what Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers did.

As part of an annual troopers-to-truckers education program, 12 troopers walked more than 60 trucking company safety staff through their varied levels of safety inspections.

"No other state offers this kind of interaction between troopers and the trucking industry," said Kevin Phelps, director of safety for Pavestone Co., a Dallas-based firm that deals in paving for patios and similar areas.

Mr. Phelps said he travels to all 14 states in which the company operates, and only in Tennessee do troopers work with truckers as closely as they did at the Wednesday event.

Troopers divided up with teams of four or five industry officials as they stopped tractor-trailers traveling east on Interstate 24. Once stopped, the lawmen checked brakes, engine and tire condition, trailer-weight distribution and other areas of safety.

"This is the envy of the trucking industry all across the states that I go to," said Dave Huneryager, president of the Tennessee Trucking Association.

Mr. Huneryager came to Tennessee in 1990 and soon began working with the trucking association. At the time, "the relationship between the troopers and trucking industry wasn't very good," he said.

Tennessee Highway Patrol Sgt. John Harmon said the event is held annually in the Chattanooga district and 11 other sites through the state. He called it an "education opportunity" for both truckers and troopers.

Mr. Huneryager agreed.

With 70,000 trucks traveling through the state each year -- 75 percent passing through on their way to another state -- safety inspections must be sound, he said.

"In Tennessee, 90 percent of what you have in your home and live on was delivered by a truck," Mr. Huneryager said. "Trucking is key to economic prosperity."

Any delays in deliveries cost both the company and the client money, he said, and better safety inspections can eliminate those delays.

Mr. Phelps pointed at the line of trucks filing into the mandatory inspection area on Interstate 24.

"It's all about image, each truck is logo'd," he said. "It's obvious who that truck works for."

He takes lessons from the inspections, he said, and passes information along to the rest of the company's staff.

"Trucks are a company's first line of advertisement," he said. "If it's dirty, not safe, that's a bad image and there's no way to alter or change that."