Opinions Please

I'll try to make this short and sweet. I was told by my dispatcher to dead head about 150 miles to swap trailers with another driver. I drive a 48 foot flat bed trailer with a spread axle. My trailer is empty, his is loaded sidewalk pavers. He had picked his load up from 2 states away and his load was going to my home town area. I had to pull into a weigh station with the load and received a citation for being 4,200 pounds overweight on #4 axle. The load appeared to be centered on the trailer. My question is, who would be responsible to pay the citation? This whole deal feels like a bad set up to me.

 

I do feel the other driver should pay the fine or at least pay half.How much was the citation if you don't mind me asking?

 

Did you meet the other driver to get his weigh ticket? Did you scale it some place or just hook and go. Maybe he did want to get rid of it knowing he was driving into trouble. Assume nothing and always scale your load. You had to have looked at the BOL and noticed a shipping weight and that should have triggered a, "I'd better scale this thing", message in your head. Assume nothing!

 

That sucks. I'd want him to pay at least half and possibly give him a kick in the scrotum.

 

You drove it like that so it's your butt. If you want the other driver to be responsible then you needed to scale it first thing or ask to find out if it was scaled.

I also agree with pattyj, the other driver should have some liability in this.

 

something does not smell right, overweight on only #4 by 4200 this is probably a mechanical issue - as in #5 not properly inflated

 

You should have scaled it and then found the problem.. contacted your company and asked them what to do. Had you been cleared to pull the the load and gotten this ticket, at least they would have eaten it.. this will still show up on the CSA radar..

 

He's overweight on one axle. scales weigh both axles generally. he would have never known unless he found a single axle scale. OR. paid attention to how the trailer sits. like dale said. rear axle probably not inflated.

 

Good point but now I'm wondering how the weigh station picked up on it. I drive van/dry/reefer so this is new info for me. Thanks in advance.

 

Fuzzy, weight and dimension are not part of CSA as of the current time. That day is a coming at some point in the future. They were initially included, but removed in the Aug 2010 methodology update.