Brokers and weight discrepancies

This will get more hits in the Owner section, you might want to ask a mod to move it....

That said, it sounds like the first is 100% on you. After all CAT scales exist...
Second one I would say is on the broker to make right. Obviously brokers lie, but once it's in writing they need to follow the contract. Back in the 3 months I did reefer 45,000 was a standard load, and 40,000 was an unheard of light load.

 

You need gauges on your bags on the truck & trailer. Once you are loaded to your max you make them quit loading.

 

Moved to O/O

 

I got surprise today , rate con says 43.5 - got loaded with 12.8 only

 

It’s not all that expensive to have scales installed on your trailer. Normal dry weight limit is 45,000 and reefer 43,000.

$1,000 investment or if you can do yourself pays for itself very quickly in time, headache, fuel, and scaling costs at truck stops.

 

Yep, get scales, there will be a lil difference, not much.
I just weighed out at customer.

Here is my scale on truck/Bluetooth to phone.

Only 40 pounds difference.

 

Put some air scales on your truck. Make them cut the load at the shipper when your scales show it's overweight. If they tell you to drive to the nearest CAT scale that's 20 miles away to scale it then bring back a ticket tell them to just cut the entire load off of your truck and to have a good day. Do not sign the BOL. Make them unload it. Probably burning a bridge with that broker but they're a dime a dozen anyways so no real loss. Liars deserve what they get and in today's market the shipper might actually be amenable to cutting the load for you. You'll have to be prepared for a broker trying to short pay you probably. But it's only a load and who wants to work with LIARS and CHEATS?

 

You don't know what your empty weight is? If I were you, I would go scale the truck and trailer as soon as you have a chance when empty, that way you know what's the limit on how much you can load. Write down how much fuel you have on your truck on the scale ticket and keep it stashed somewhere in the truck so you know if you can load 40K, 43K, or even 45K with full or half full tanks. Every truck and trailer is different. I have a '99 FLD120 double bunk, several tools in it, pulling a 2008 53' utility reefer and empty weight is about 34500 with about 3/4 fuel (2 140gal tanks). So legally, I could load up to 45K, but I try not to grab loads close to that number because that means playing around with the tandems, and some warehouse employees don't have a clue how to load properly, so even with tandems all the way forward you could still end up 36K+ on drives.

 

You should scale the load to be honest, getting busted at the weigh station for it is silly.

We all get overloaded from time to time, the key is to handle it right there at the shipper. Most will tell you to go scale the load and come back with the scale ticket. Than they will rework to legal weight. You do that and negotiate with the broker how much he needs to pay for this extra trip. Other option is to ask them to unload, in most cases you want see any pay or TONU than.

And yes, you need guages on your equipment especially since you have heavier than average setup.

On the other note, there’s no “standard weight of 45k lb”. Standard is 80k lb gross. You don’t dispute the 45k number, you stand by 80k gross number by which I mean, when you get into situation like this you don’t emphasize what was your max to load, you just say that it’s loaded over gross and it needs to be made legal.