Overweight on trailer.....unless I violated the bridge law

First of all, it's KPRA not bridge law. Bridge law is weight in regards to distance between axle groups. It is virtually impossible to violate bridge laws with a 53' trailer.

Secondly - neither, go back and get reworked. Eventually you'll end up in a situation where the scale house will make you off load freight to get legal on both before letting you leave.

Circa 2015 I was getting unloaded in Terre Haute, IN. I got a call from my DM asking how long until I was unloaded. I was confused because I already had my next load assigned and it had open pick up and delivery windows, but I told him probably 30 minutes, tops. DM says "great, head to the INDOT scale house asap we need to transload another driver". I figured the other driver had been put OOS for trailer issues that couldn't be repaired on sight. Turns out the driver had f'd up by the numbers by not scaling and getting legal before leaving Hannibal, MO. He was loaded with gaylords spread out to the 45' mark internally and set his tandems all the way forward. Scale house gave him one shot to get legal, he slid all the way to the 43' mark (max KPRA) and was still over. Scale Master put the driver OOS until product was removed to meet legal weight. I showed up and waited an hour for a wrecker company to show up with a pallet jack and a plate. They put the pallet jack and plate in my trailer, I backed up to the other driver, they dropped the plate and moved 4 gaylords into my trailer. Scale Master sealed us both and signed my hand written BOL and we could both head off to delivery

We have a shipper that traditionally loaded us to 45,000 and change, leaving us just under gross and being barely able to axle out, let alone meet KPRA. At hole X we're over on the tandems, and X+1 we're over on the drives. I 'temporarily helped out' on a dedicated account for 2 years before returning to OTR last spring. When I returned I found that shipper was loading at 40K max. Turns out they got tired of reworking us so they just started loading safe instead of sorry. The more we make shippers embrace the pain of their screw ups, the less they will screw up.

 

I've always heard it referred to as bridge law. Never heard of this kpra reference before but ya learn something new all the time out here. I've also never heard of like someone mentioned in another post not being able to slide tandems to get it legal or like you mentioned only getting one shot at it. Guess I've never ran into that strict of a dot cop before. I've always ran into or observed that ya only call a service to come out as a last resort to move freight as a last resort after every attempt with tandems an 5th wheel have been used to try an get legal.

 

I scale loads, very rare for me not to, just gives me peace of mind. Then if its a problem I deal with it, either at a cross dock or the shipper. I always load Cal legal that way theres no worries.

 

A lot of people use the terms interchangeably, and it's a bit of a sore spot for me as it highlights one of the biggest weakness this industry has - not asking "why". One person gets taught something and they teach someone else, and then that guy teaches someone else, etc, etc, etc. After a few iterations, the base principle gets lost and we end with safety critters saying "be the rock in the river" and "don't check your mirrors, focus on what's in front" when it originally was "hey, you're coming up on the 290 and 88 interchange and there's going to be a lot of folks doing a bunch of stuff, move over into lane 2 for the next mile" and "make sure you have your following distance so you don't have to stress about the guy tailgating you".

One of the benefits of training is being forced to understand the "why" so I can teach my students. I'll tell them "you were taught X because of Reason, that was important back then, but now we do Y because of the introduction of Z". Or "I know doing X this way seems dumb, but we do it because of Z".

 

I get it. I always like reading your posts when i see them once in awhile cuz a lot of em do seem informative. I been out here 30 yrs but am always willing to learn new stuff.

 

I agree even after many more miles than I can countt, I learn things everyday.

 

Several other states have a kingpin rule.

Tennessee has them . I know folks that have gotten tickets in TN for being 5 inches too long between the kingpin and rear axle .

usually only happens on a Tri axles RGN but TN will cite you for it if they see it .

 

False. TN has a kingpin to rear of trailer/load. If it’s over 50’ you need an over length permit. RGN’s have a shallow king pin they know this and that’s why they pick on them. But it’s not a kpra.

 

Yes I was gonna say TN is 50ft from kingpin to rear of the trailer......