western express wants you to break the law

snowman01 said:

Why? Why would you give the shipper THAT weight space to work with? That space is for FUEL not freight. If I go into a heavy load shipper, I top my tanks off---that is MY piece of mind, not theirs to use for more freight at the same rate.
Law is 80,000 lbs. gross....you (shipper) make it happen whatever you gotta do---i.e. Cut the load.

kid_cardiac said:

Actually, going into Manhattan with a 53 footer is illegal....the other four boroughs I believe is fine.

roadwarriorflatbeder said:

Got news for you driver.....the law is 80,000 lbs. gross. If I go in with full tanks (which I have a right to), then they can cut the load to gross 80,000....or put it on a lighter truck! Why do you guys put up with the hassel? I'm not running on an eighth of a tank of fuel, so these greedy shippers can get an extra pallet of freight moved for the same rate.

Bumpy said:

Yet another one. Know wonder drivers get stepped on all the time....we bring it on ourselves.

anj8488 said:

And another!

Yep! As puppets, we set ourselves up for unnessecary stress....and in the end; failure.

 

Hmm.Well your right.I will top off the tanks,our more/less dedicated shippers and customers will get tired of this and find a different trucking company,I will take a lighter load somewhere else and instead of making it home in a virtual straight line-I can make er home via TX if I'm lucky..

Brilliant..

 

Good idea Bumpy....now you are your own man! Happy for you. Thanks for understanding; and doing your part to help straighten up this industry, and turn control back over to the drivers, where it should be.

 

Well the fact of the matter is that this is not my personal truck, I work for some one else, if they tell me not to fuel before I go (which they do via QC) I don't. If they will pay to fuel as I go, I will. If it causes the load to be late,it's not on me. I state that in the beginning, and roll. Do I like it? Hell no. but until I can get my own with my own authority, I do as I am asked within reason. Call me what you will, I am still employed. I am currently looking for other employment that will work within the law, but for now this is what I have.

 

It's O.K. man...Who I work for counts EVERY penny so believe me..If they make a profit off of hauling 48,000 lbs of lumber-I will drive 1800 mi back to MN on 1/2 fuel tanks cause as I have said..It is NOT that big of a deal.. What DOES suck is throwing the lumber tarps on and get scaled (not all sawmills) have them;find out the load is over-take them off to have some product taken off.

Still if I am to blame for the State of the Trucking Industry for rolling with 1/2 I said 1/2...Not 1/4...Not 1/8...But 1/2 fuel tanks...I shall carry that cross with me to my grave..

 

When I drove for Stevens, whenever we hauled into Florida, we were always told to have no more than 75 gallons of fuel in our tanks because 99% of the time we would be deadheaded to Tropicana in Bradenton and the contract with them was no less than 46,000 lbs. I once repowered with an owner operator who had picked up at Tropicana because he was dead empty on his tanks (non Starlight Western Star) and over gross and even I was 80lbs over gross when I scaled out with a T600 with his load. Pretty much had to run light on fuel all the way to Houston.

 

I know what shipper it is coming out of Maine, You only come down as far as PA OR NJ with that that load. I never came out where I could not scale. I drove a Prostar, with 3/4 of fuel I was under 79500 gross. As far as NY city I have been down into Manhattan with a 53ft trailer, no hassles. As far as the OP I do not know what happened, but I do know from talking with people that it was decided it would be best for both parties if they separated. He was told in orientation that he would have to go into NY city, I could not tell him when or how often. 98 percent of van drivers see Maine, Even some Ca drivers see it. YES THAT IS RIGHT I TOLD THE OP IN ORIENTATION ABOUT MAINE AND NY.

 

No we do not. Western wants you to run 100% legal, but they want you to run hard.................. Western is trying to get away from that image. ty.