Lately I have quit pre-scaling in favor of rolling thru blind.

When approaching the scale house I don my extra dirty nascar ball cap (tipped to one side and back slightly) and slip on a set of coke bottle glasses (canted slightly opposite ball cap) I come to an out of gear, complete stop, before actually rolling onto the scale. This way I can proceed to grind the heck out of the gears putting it back in the hole.

I motor slowly onto the scale slipping the clutch and causing the hood to shake. I then firmly plant my foot on the brakes rocking the truck. This is followed by slowly getting a big slurp of coffee from my nasty stainless mug while staring straight ahead oblivious to my surroundings.

Today in Minnesota I actually stopped straddled the scale. Steers out front of it and drives still about a foot from it. After about 30 seconds the guy finally flipped the light to "weigh trailer axle" and I drove off in granny low bucking and jumping without stopping.

The "Too stupid to sign his own name" look, has thus far been working out fine for me. Though, I suppose, I will eventually come across a hall monitor that is bored enough to actually pull me around back and want to play 20 questions with me.

good luck on getting all my paperwork and the ticket written out before your shift goes off duty.

No, I don't really have any hobbies, I used to screw with people for the fun of it but now all I got is the D.O.T. and they're a poor but passable substitute.

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Though your argument is very clever, I don't think it will lead to the results you desire. gandhi

I was in Wisconsin.

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This is my winch bar. There are many like it, but this one is mine. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me my winch bar is useless. Without my winch bar, I am useless.

I used to run all over Wisconsin with my steering axle well over 13k lbs and no one ever said anything to me about it, nor did any other state.

If you think you were overweight, that's all that matters.

The primary point in my reply was that the steering axle weight limit on all Interstates is 20,000 lbs, not 12,000 lbs, limited by mfg's specs for the steering axle & tires.

The poster sounded to me like he was trying to get the ok to go. Either way a dispatcher can not tell you to go with a load that's not legal no matter where it started. The dispatcher did right by not saying yeah go ahead. That's what came across to me anyway. The driver wanted the blessing of the dispatcher and even said he could even get legal after he burned a few gallons of diesel off.

It wasn't so much of trying to get the blessing, but I knew the question was coming and I headed it off. Dispatchers are pretty predictable.

Also, I was only running a portion of Wisconsin on the Interstate. The rest was on US Highways, State Roads, and County Roads. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate your input but you guys keep popping these numbers in, but they don't apply to every situation.

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This is my winch bar. There are many like it, but this one is mine. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me my winch bar is useless. Without my winch bar, I am useless.

Did not try dictate a certain situation except for the fact of running legal. It's not that we haven't all done it, it's the fact of what happens if something goes wrong. The lawyers will tear you apart and put all the blame on you if they find you'll running overweight. Even if it's not your fault.

Just curious - did you submit a PTA? I submit mine the day before delivery and so far have never had to wait more than an hour or so for my next load. Usually it's sent to me before I ever deliver.

I agree, though - "night dispatch" is a misnomer. They aren't there to plan/dispatch. Their job is to solve little problems (like lumper fees and fueling issues). I just can't think of a better name for them at the moment.

One thing though - from your narrative, night dispatch merely said "you don't have permission to go home". They didn't say "don't go". The armchair quarterback suggest that dropping the subject at that point would have been good.

Or, knowing May policies on the matter, maybe just not saying anything at all?

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Keep the big doors at the back!

I did not know that I was going to be able to drop the load off early so I set my PTA for the delivery time and day I was
new and did not know any better.

Other than a few problems with my old dispatcher amy the black lady in layton'
I did not have any pay issues except one time but it was caused by me not being able to scan my trips in on time.
I got a check for about 400 one week because of me not scanning my trips.
But I was in the middle of no were sitting at truckstop beside the walmart dc in nebraska other times I forgot to get them out of my truck while at the p lot fueling but it was still my fault.

Like I said in another post I plan on comming back to May. If I have any problems getting back on I will call ol Danny out in Oregon He will remember me I hate his little quizzes but I passed them all.
Danny is also the guy I told I get a freighliner or a bus ticket back to terminal in layton so I could pick up my car.

Danny's in Denver now

I admit, at first I was a bit annoyed by his quizzes, but now I find them fun. Maybe I hit my head too hard or something

AH - I don't really consider those pay problems. I have two tripsheets sitting here with me at the house because I haven't been able to submit them yet. Probably will tomorrow. No big deal for me. My issue was that they'd paid me for miles while I was a trainee, and didn't pay my trainee pay. It was a difference of about $100.

Since I was driving down I-5 anyway, I just stopped in Brook and had a 5 minute chat with payroll. Bing-bang, fixed.

Yeah.. I understand about PTA and ETA divergence! My very first load was a hot beer load to CA (by hot, I mean un-refrigerated. I probed the trailer, it was 123 degrees in there. Made me glad I don't drink beer) I figured my ETA using the MPH my trainer's truck got.

Bad idea. I was off by a good 13 hours, since my truck is governed slower, AND has less oomph under the hood. Fortunately, it was a "deliver sometime before Christmas" load , No set appointment.

After that, I've set my sights a tad lower, and not had to adjust my ETA. I usually arrive within a few hours of my ETA - and I'm refining that as I go. I'm taking careful notes of my MPH average on a given run, and including the severity of the grades, the weight of the load, traffic conditions, construction, and weather. With that, I think in the not too distant future, I'll be able to lay out an ETA that's within an hour per 1000 miles.

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Keep the big doors at the back!

Don't cut your ETA that close. Traffic, weather, blown tires or other mechanic items can easy burn up a lot of hours.


I usually figured ETA at 50 mph average plus a couple hrs if it was a short run with local roads.


Running across the country I might use 65 or 62 plus 5 or 6 hrs. When I knew I had interstates etc. Maybe that doesn't work for you, it worked pretty good for me. I hate being rushed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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