When the shipper doesn't have a truck scale

Nah, bro, you just drive over to the scale.

What chompi and tinytim said. I've had to do it whether it was rolls of paper, copper wire, canned food, copper anodes, soft drinks. I used to load paper in Portland, OR and the shipper (in those days) didn't have a scale. So we drove two miles to Jubitz and scaled there. Once in awhile we had to go back for a load shift (so we were out and about and overweight). Not fun, but not fatal.

Beer loads out of Fort Collins were a pain because they'd weigh your rig loaded, but you couldn't axle out on their scale. Then you'd cross the state scale about a mile (two?) from the brewery and they'd let you legal your axles; they knew what was up. Ditto beer loads out of Williamsburg, VA--when the VA scale guys learned where you'd loaded, they let you pull around and get your axles right.

But I do sympathize, I'm sorry you quit, and I hope you can find something else. BOL.

I vaguely recall something in the FMCSRs to the effect that the shipper is responsible for a loaded and sealed trailer being overweight or impossible to axle out, not the driver. I mean, you can't just grab it and go, you have to scale it, and if it's over you've got to go back, but it's on the shipper.

 

Hindsight being 20/20 if you feel your going to be in that situation often such as OD/HH work a set of air scales (or for the redneck air gauge) would be a wise investment to have in my opinion. As for what I would do, I would have looked at the load on my tires and if they showed no great flex I would have taken it to a scale. What you did is what you felt comfortable doing so that was the right decision for you.

 

You are LEGAL leaving the shipper and going to the nearest scale to scale the load. If overweight you are LEGAL to return to shipper to have it corrected.

I can't believe you even had to ask this question. Are you sure your qualified to "Heavy Haul"? Yikes

 

Can you post that reg please as I have never seen that in writing anywhere thanks.

 

you have been driving 11 years Tazz, and never saw the regs???????

Neither have I. Not saying there isn't any tho. Lol

Am curious too.

 

This is what I was taught....

 

So,

nobody can answer the question...............

 

Company policy is what he is having a problem with !!!!!

 

I've yet to work for a company that said I couldn't drive to a scale to scale my load out!

 

Are you kidding me? I've been driving for about a year and do dry van heavy haul (soda, paper, you name it). You should be able to learn pretty quickly whether the weights are accurate or not on the BOL. Sometimes you can see what it says, and you just know it is wrong. Other times you will know its pretty close. You use your judgement and if you aren't certain, you go scale it. DOT isn't unreasonable (despite what some people will let you believe) they understand that sometimes there just isn't any way to know how much you weigh and that's why you can get to the nearest scale and scale it. Have you noticed how many truck stops with can scales are just before the weigh station?. There's a reason for this.

This sounds a lot like you made a bad decision and now you're looking for someone to justify it for you.