that sucks man, i dont know of many rigs gettin stopped and checked around here. but i know a lot of guys would be hurtin. im sure glad i dont run it.

 

Crap man. That just took all thoughts out of my head about running that stuff

 

Ok, so I did some checking and without calling the state of missouri I cant find the published rates for using off road diesel fuel on road .. however I did find a published report that gave the rates for multiple midwestern states. The rates are from oct 2002 so keep that in mind.

Wisconsin: greater of $1000 or twice the amount of the fuel tax
Illinois: $2500 first offense, $5000 subsequent
Iowa: $200 first offense, $500 second, $1000 third
Michigan: $200 first offense, $5000 subsequent
Minnesota: greater of $1000 or $10/gal
Indiana: $200 first offense, $2500 second, $5000 subsequent
Kansas: $10/gal fine no less than $1000 no more that $10000 first offense, $25/gal fine no less than $5000 no more than $50000 subsequent
Nebraska: $1000 license suspension
Ohio: greater of $1000 or $10/gal

These were the listed civil penalties for fuel tax evasion/abuse of dyed diesel fuel. These penalties do not include criminal fines. Example of criminal fine in addition to civil penalty:

Wisconsin: $500 or 6 months jail or both.

All of this information was taken from a report on fuel tax evasion in the midwest .. dated Oct 2002.

 

Thats why EVERY Offraod pump here has these two stickers on them....

 

Thats sucks! No offense, but you deserved it. It is illegal, there fore dont complain when you get in trouble. I understand why you would run ORD, it is much cheaper, but it IS illegal.

Also, I would have opted for the next morning test. That gives you enough time to flush the dye out of your tank and replace your fuel filter if it stained it.

 

Theres no way possible to clean that dye outa your rig in one night, he was screwed either way. That dye bites into everything and sticks around for quite awhile. They can even swab the injector lines and find dye there too. Your literally up **** creek without a paddle no matter what you do...

 

Everybody always thinks they can beat the system. This is the kinda thought that got him in trouble. If there was a way to clean the dye out overnight they wouldn't have offered him that option. Once you use that fuel, even by accident your jacked if they check, even several tanks later.

 

ok, he is a DOT officer, and u thought he didnt know anything about diesels.

yes the penalty is steep but at least they didnt fine you and keep your truck, cause it is possible for them to. you may think know one knew you were doing this, but ill bet that you were called in on if you werent hauling anything for them to stop to check out. 90% of the trucks caught with red fuel are called in on.

 

Did more checking ...

Misuse of dyed diesel fuel in Missouri is a Class A misdemeanor ... that means the judge can 1) impound your truck, 2) sell your truck if you cannot pay the fines, and 3) send you to jail.

A friend of mines neighbor was caught last year running red fuel .. his fine was $25,000 and he couldnt get out of it. Shannon (the friend) says that the fine is based upon the estimated amount of fuel used in 1 year, then it is assumed that all of the fuel was offroad fuel and not taxed. There may also be issues with you being out of state and crossing state lines with illegal fuel .. so arkansas may get something out of it/have a say on the issue, but I dont know since I'm not an lawyer.

Missouri doesnt mess around with this sort of thing anymore. I have several friends that farm and have transfer fuel tanks in the back of their pickups. They have all been stopped and had their tanks dipped/filters checked to see if they were using red fuel out of the transfer tank. Something else to think about .. Missouri taxes diesel fuel at $0.17/gallon which means a fine of $18,000 is equivalent to the tax on 105,882 gallons of fuel. If your truck gets 10mi/gal towing that means you would have to drive 1,058,820 miles using red fuel to equal the cost of one ticket for fuel tax evasion.

Ok, that is more than my $0.02 on the issue.

 

I would also have to assume that after the state get's tired of taste of yer *** that he federal IRS would want a taste also for their portion of the taxes.