Received a $5000 Ticket!

Sad but true, I've been out here 20 years and wasn't real sure about the frost law either. I had load of pallets going from Meijer in Lansing, MI to Absopure Water in Plymouth, MI. Follow my GPS to Ann Arbor Rd from I 275, it told me to turn left on Haggerty Rd and a right on Joy Rd to the facility just ahead on the right. My bills had a Joy Rd address. I later found out that the entrance was on General Dr.

After I made my right turn on Joy Rd, I was committed to the turn and saw the Frost Law sign but concentrated on the facility on the right. Meanwhile a sheriff pulled me over and didn't tell me what but escorted me back to the rest area on I 275 and issued my company a ticket for $3000. They went to court and got it reduced to $1500 and now we are at odds of them trying to get me to pay half.

I'm fighting it because I feel that this should have been corrected long before I came along. I made sure by calling in to prevent this from happening to anyone else and wonder why anyone before has gotten a ticket and why anyone after me has gotten a ticket. Just because as an owner operator we may be liable for tickets, I felt that there should have been a efforts between customer service, the vendor, and our managers to prevent this from happening any further to anybody else.

From what I'm seeing, reading, and understanding, this isn't the first time that this has happened and isn't the last time but it's sad that the driver gets caught holding all of the blame.

 

Explain the "frost law."

 

frost law is during the spring thaw, they reduce the load limit on the roads. What is normally a 10 ton axle road will be a 5 ton until it's thawed.

This can take from 2-4 weeks depending on the season.

 

Here is some info...

Michigan Center for Truck Safety (http://www.truckingsafety.org/index.htm)

http://www.micountyroads.org/weight.php

Michigan used to print a map with the weight restrictions. I don't know if they still do anymore. There is an electronic version of the map.

 

Man all this is crazy. Should fall under the "cruel and unusual punishment" act.

 

Thanks, driver! I had never even heard of that law before!

 

Spring road restrictions really screw us up trying to haul corn.

 

Come run in the snowbelt. You'll have to deal with it each spring. You also get the benefit of winter over-limits too where they let you haul 10% over

 

If you had not made a mistake then a ticket would not have been issued. I think that the company is being generous to only ask you to pay half of the fine. I understand that it is a lot of money, but it was your error, not the company. More than likely the cop felt that it would be easier to collect from the carrier than you. Had you paid more attention to what you were doing you would not have gotten the ticket. Perhaps it sounds unfair to you but it isn't fair to have the company pay for a ticket for something that you did and that they had no control. We all make mistakes. Hopefully, we learn from them and don't make the same mistakes again.

 

Calm down. It's county jail not prison. If you can't do a 90 day stretch without turning into a homosexual then you have more serious problems than a $5000 ticket. Cmon.