Random load questions.

When I pick up a pre loaded and sealed trailer the first thing I do is look at the weight on the BOL. then I look at my air gauge on the dash. (not all trucks have this) If things look good and I slide the tandems to where I believe they should be and get back in the seat and the air gauge is still good I head to the nearest scale! If things are good I'm out of there!

NOW, there is a situation where you load or pick up and the route you have to go there is a scale about a mile or so from you. This is a judgment call! You can't scale and the nearest scale is 20 miles in the opposite direction from you then do what you have to do. Message the company for advice. Call the scale house (yes they are listed!) and explain to them where you are loading and believe it or not you will not be the first one to cross them after loading and they just might scale you so you CAN be legal. Stranger things have been known to happen!

Or you can figure out how to go around said scale or wait for them to "maybe" close for the day/night. Just remember if you ARE over weight when you get to the next pay scale then you have to return!

I just hope your company will pay you the OOR miles!
BUT if things are not good such as to heavy, axle weight not good, I send in a message and request to go back (actually I tell them I'm going back but I have a ton of whiskers in this business!) and get it reloaded even if they are closed. I've learned that if dispatch tells you to go with an overloaded trailer and "we'll pay the fines" not to believe it! Even if it on Qual Comm! I've gotten bent on overweight fines and I'm in this to make money not give it to DOT! My last 2 companies had no problem with me reloading as they didn't want the DOT looking at them any more than nessicary! I also do NOT run OOR for someone who isn't going to pay me to run behind scales. Again I'm not working for free and extra OOR miles due to an overweight trailer just isn't going to happen! Yes in my young and dumb years when a company actually would throw an extra $20 - $50 at you for running the load illegal, yeah, I'll do it, But these day. Ain't going to happen! Like in the past 20 years! LOL! And especially with CSA2010 now in effect if I ever get medically released back to driving!

 

The benefit of being able to slide your tandems is you can adjust your weight. If your tandems are over then you can slide them to the rear and that will move some of your loaded weight forward. Just like a teeter totter. You know when you need to (basically) by scaling your truck and trailer and if you are overweight you try to adjust it to make it legal

 

Pretty slick diagrams there Northernblue. I took me a minute or two just to figure out what all those little boxes were. I don't pull a box these days. Good info just the same.

 

Thanks but I cant take the credit. I got that from somebody else in this forum. I cant remember who but I saved it as I thought it was good stuff

 

Pull a flatbed & you won't have to worry about how it is loaded!