Hauling bark while weighing over 80k lbs.

I am required by Company Policy to scale ANY LOAD over 30,000 lbs declared weight on the BOL. I doubt this policy is in force to see how much OVERWEIGHT I can get away with. I never worry about weigh stations. Get green prepass signal 99% of the time. Maybe 99.9% Banning pulls everybody in......but hey...... California. Rarely go there.... No biggie!

 

You can get away with being over until you don't. You know like one of those pesky accidents where some corndog hits you. As Paul Harvey use to say, and now the rest of the story.

 

Won't be long, and you'll know how much you got on. Learn your load gauge. Watch the scale every time you go across. Learn what a legal load looks like.

Get out and look at the heap heighth on a legal load, front and back, to give you an idea how much to put on, don't leave that up to the loader. You tell him when to stop. Better to scale 3 times and go back for a bit more than to go out the gate with 95,000# onboard (doubt you could get that much on).

Depending where the loads are going, ask or learn where the scales are. Don't go there if you're heavy. The load ain't paying enough for either you or the boss to be paying overweight tickets regular-like.

Overweight tickets just cost money. You or the company won't get any points for just an overweight. But a bored DOT man might then decide to give you an inspection and find a whole bunch of trouble for you. Don't be that driver. Keep your rig in shape, and in order.

Good luck.

 

Do you even have to cross the DOT scales during the trip?

 

I’d want to know for sure. Get your info from the horses mouth. When I hauled chips I was always tipping 140,000 and never any issues, plus they’d allow 10% over in winter for snow/ice buildup
Green chips are heavier, bit of a learning curve depending on product. Bark is not very dense, much lighter.

 

Most companies are that way. But not all of them. ANY overweight tickets I get are paid by the company. That being said, if I'm over gross weight, they'll pay the ticket, but I'll hear about it for a day or so afterwards.

 

I used to run a belly dump hauling sand and gravel and what not. All paid by the ton so obviously wanted as much weight as possible without messing around going back to the loader multiple times per trip and wanting as many trips as possible. If I was less than 1000 to 1500lbs over weight I didn't sweat it much. The fines for under that aren't much and dot wasn't really around much anyway. This was before the days of CSA scores but still. Local driving not crossing scales i wouldn't be overly concerned

 

They may not be lenient knowing there is a scale where you load. Decent job for new driver

 

Your a local driver hauling out of a sawmill very few things if any you haul are going to be legal you’ve either gotta learn how to handle it or move on.