load-scaling reality check

And ultimately killing a chance at appointment on time, that's a customer service failure. In addition it will burn up that log book and destroy productivity for the remainder of that week's 70 hours etc.

Drivers don't get to decide much. There is a very limited amount of decision making that drivers do. Anything bigger requires the Boss and Owners if necessary others as well to decide what is best when something becomes a mess.

The OP attempted to explain it takes a certain amount of time to go cat in town. It would be better to drive down the road 80 miles then cat. nuh uh. You will still be using that time to cat in town and know you solved or not the weight issue. It is way better to cat that thing right there in town.

I tell you this story for myself on a particularly bad day in Virginia, town of Harrisonburg off 81. I had supervised a court ordered juvenile loading crew of 5 to hand bomb frozen meat into the seacan container reefer live load. By the time we closed the doors on that thing I climbed into the tractor and pulled from the dock. Instantly from the excessive behaviors displayed by the truck it's WAY too heavy.

Out of the windshield I was looking at a CAT Scale tower sign at the truckstop a couple blocks away. Sat there and debated it.

Looking back on my extreme lack of experience (It was about my second month ever in trucking from graduation with a Class A, the absolute worst kind of newbie, knowing NOTHING. Nothing like the veteran professional I am today... a total opposite of that) I figured that dispatch wants this box in baltimore, it's loaded been 6 hours today loading on top of the drive down and it's time to GO. Ships don't wait.

What I Should have done was never left the shipper. The company has like a thousand trucks and boxes to bring for that extreme load bound to Europe by ship. The result was I broke the Virginia scales in Stephens City. They wrote a stack of violations into the thousands upon thousands of dollars for my outrageously egregious loading.

Then said Maryland scales are open towards Baltimore I would break them too. The rest of the trip should have never taken place considering the routing etc. The whole load was a very bad one and to have me, a flat newbie trying to think it through make everything just disgustingly expensive for the company.

That is that.

The Mack truck was totaled. As probably was the chassis that carried that box.

And you the OP is worried about getting down the road 80 miles? Nuh uh. You sit there in the shipper or cat in town, fix the problem weights get legal any way you can. BEFORE you roll. The term loaded and rolling when given means that everything is A1 GOOD and it's TIME to roll and not a moment before.

One trucker made a post about hammering the brakes and shifting 500 minimum pounds forward in the trailer, I have done that a time or two a good freight shaker can do that very well. However that leads to hand unloading, overages, shorts and damage and additional time that we do not have at the reciever. But yes you can absolutely joke about that. I love things like that. But just because we say that and tease about that does not mean you go out and do it mr newbie.

Trucking is one of the greatest things that runs this Nation, and it takes a particular person to do this right, solve problems and sometimes you solve it by asking your boss for help with a known MESS. They have been there so many times it's second nature to fix it.

And as for the previous driver that created that trailer mess? He will be hunted and then taken care of. You never really think that you can do something and get away clean from the scene of a crime whatever that is.

That's all this morning for me on this topic. I DO hope that we learn things and do better sometimes by ASKING FOR HELP from your bosses. Note I repeated that a few times. A little thinking is good. But you do not own the company nor do you deal with the customers you serve so your thinking is limited to driving and getting legal.

 

What were the axle weights with that frozen meat load?

 

If a driver is picking up a load he should always be on the dock and asking how many pallets and how heavy are they. Then tell the shipper how you want it loaded. Don't put up with "this is how we always do it" nonsense. What you should be asking is if you have this many pallets weighing this much....how do I put em in there so my axles will be close? Also should know if the load goes through ca or ri and needs the max 40' kpra rule. As well as md (or canada) and their max 35% overhang rule... if you really know your equipment you can say your kpra measurements (and subsequent trailer overhang) for each hole the tandems are locked in.. Then play the fuel game on top of all that!

I still haven't figured out why axle air gauges don't come standard

 

This will work only under 2 conditions. Otherwise you are asking for major headaches later depending on the situations. 1 if you are LTL and not sealed and 2 if 1 is not the case only after getting the company involved. cross docks are nice. They are the primary reason loads get taken to Jersey and not into NYC. Also I should add a 3rd condition if you are using a cross dock logistics company that can open a seal and reseal it. I actually had to do this once because of my own mistake. However it was done through my company.

 

I agree with you post and the spirit of it. However I have one question in regard to the CDL part I underlined. I know an overweight ticket is not a CVS violation and will not be something effecting this. However are you sure it is considered a no points ticket in all of the 48 lower states. I am only asking this because I was under the impression some states assessed points.

 

Don't believe in hand holding either but I do believe in trying to smack the stupid out of people.

Driver loads, goes 100 miles before scaling and funding out he'said illegal. Driver says "nuts to going back, I'm too far and dispatch won't pay me for all these miles, so hammer down". Driver drops it to be repowered, screwing the company and the next driver. Second driver is well within their rights to roscoe the first driver. Company should fire the first driver.

Go forth and handle your business - but if you don't and I have to clean up your mess I'l make the Old Testament look Good rated.

 

It's theoretical. Math says it's 160,000 gross. The reason it's theoretical is because the state scales failed at 134500 roughly. It dropped me and the whole rig down almost a foot and half onto the fail safe skeleton steel webbing above the man basement servicing below.

 

Woah

 

X1 was also the Navy seal who got bin laden. He also personally saved the life of the first president Bush.

 

I agree. I didn’t know that this load was a repower.

I was sitting in a yard in Houston. Saw a driver grab a 35 ton rgn to load. He came back for a 60 ton with a flip neck. I flipped the neck down and pinned it, relocated the kingpin to the flip and he went to load. When he comes back, he had loaded a piece of machinery with 2 crates of accessories that were banded to the big machine. That’s where the problem began.

‘Driver, you can’t run that load, it’s a divisible load.’

(In order to get an OSOW permit, the load must be a nondivisible load. He couldn’t get the axle weights legalwith a 35 ton, so he has to be over 94000 lbs. He had to flip the neck down to get the weight on the drive axles correct, even tho the trailer had 3 axles. Yet, this load had more than one piece. It cannot be made legal)

The driver looked worried,” I’m loading this for another driver...that’s all.”

‘I understand that, but that’s not loaded legally. You’re going to get the other driver into a world of trouble.’

“Not my problem.”

I didn’t see the load get picked up. But I did hear what happened. Driver picks that load up, goes to the Wyoming POE and got shut down with a divisible load. The company was scrambling trying to figure out what to do. The only thing you can do is have a forklift delivered and put those crates on another truck.

Whose fault was it? The shipper shipped it wrong, but how many shippers know the laws? All drivers involved should have know the laws, but that was two different drivers that didn’t. If one of them did, this wouldn’t have happened. The driver that loaded it would have told the shipper NO GO on the crates. The transporting driver would have refused to take thatload from the yard, where they keep trailers and forklifts.

I don’t do repowers because
-every time you go to grab a preloaded trailer, something is wrong with it and you have to take it to a shop.
-too many drivers don’t know enough to do the job.
-if something happens, if there is damage to the load, it’s YOUR baby.
-it just doesn’t pay enough.