One state trooper is working to build a better relationship with truckers a through facebook.
“These guys are out here on the road 24/7, so are we. Why not make it a better working relationship?” Brent Hoover, with the Indiana State Police.
“With the trucking industry there’s so many federal regulations and there’s so many different ways those regulations can be looked at and scrutinized,” Hoover said. “A lot of cases there’s very short limited time for both parties to basically step off on the right foot.”
“If they do have a question or something they can’t pull into a scale house comfortably and ask, say about a bad tire, because they’re worried about getting ticketed or placed out of service.”
Earlier this year, he created the “Hoover Club” on Facebook. In the “about” section he says the page is “Teaching the public and trucking individuals what DOT Inspectors do. I want to bridge the gap and create positve [sic] interactions!”
He shows photos and short videos of violations like fuel leaks, flat tires, bad tiedown chains, plus other items of interest. He also does “Did you know” posts (“Did you know that if your air tank moves more than 1 inch in any direction it falls into the Out of Service Criteria?”)
With the interactive nature of Facebook, it allows drivers to comment and ask question on items and it gives hoover a chance to answer those questions.
What a great way to improve trucker-trooper relations and educate about the important safety rules.the page has 2,600 “likes” and counting. It would be great to see more troopers do something like this.