Why don't driver's scale their loads?

To the driver who routinely hauls 100,000lbs thinking that he never crosses a scale because he's local. I guess he's never heard of portable scales and that the DOT would never use such a device in his locale.
wishful thinking I guess. Gasoline hauling can be heavy especially if you've got a tanker full of diesel. I think the most I could ever legally haul was 7400 gals and that's in my locality in TX (diesel)

 

Ever since I started driving, I've made it a habit to scale every load I get. Simply put, if I don't know, I don't know. Is it overkill? Maybe, but I like knowing for 2 main reasons: 1. What's on my axles when my Pre Pass turns traitor on me and I have to roll across. 2. (And the main reason I do) I like the ride balanced when I roll down the road and for safety, should I ever have a high threshold braking situation.

 

That's what Cat Scale likes to hear fellas ... Cat has grown quite large and profitable with those attitudes that seem to abound and they appreciate it ... I guess.

Keep on weighing those loads that don't need to be weighed if you've made a visual inspection of the load, you've felt the load, and the paperwork says "light load". Everything is relative I suppose but I'm going to be honest and say I've not scaled many dozens of 38k + loads and never been wrong yet, but I knew what the load was and how it was loaded and can "eyeball" the tires and see something is not way out of kilter.

Besides, I refuse to deal with the chaos at truck stops today if I don't absolutely feel I should due to any level of uncertainty.

 

The tricky thing with the copy of the weights is that the driver picking up the trailer should still scale the load once they are hooked to it for one simple reason. Each tractor weighs different. We are a lightweight, as with the tractor, trailer (we pull the same one) and full tanks we only weigh in at a bit above 33,000 . . . The other trucks at the company we are leased to weigh heavier than we do.

 

Scaling is done with almost every load we haul, since we are rarely below 75,000.

 

I also write what type tractor I got and rough estimate of fuel level. Best I can do

 

I know I've had some loads over the years, from places I've previously loaded out of, that have fooled me....had one the other day. Gross load weight was around 44k, and pulling out I thought it was a little out of kilter (pre-loaded and sealed) by the feel of it. Decided to scale it....11600, 29700, 35,800. Yup...glad I did! Tandems were up plenty far, so adjustment was no problem.

There are also certain places I'll never leave without scaling....P&G in Edwardsville, IL comes to mind. What a bunch of screw-ups there!

 

Company just started authorizing Comdata purchases of CAT scales, so I went and scaled this load to see how it works. Load is 44k, 8 steel coils. I had it loaded the way I wanted it, and knew it would be good, but I went anyways.

Got to the TA and scaled, went in to pay via Comdata and it wouldn't go thru!!!

I ended up paying cash for a scale that I knew I didn't need. That's what I get for scaling!

if anyone is curious, my weights are
steer: 11200
drive: 31640
spread: 31500
gross: 74340

 

Depends on what side. East side P&G sucks, never had problem with the west side.

 

I scale all loads over 30k lbs and never got fined for over weight.

When dropping a trailer at a yard, no excuse for the tandoms being over weight.

Yes trucks come in different sizes. Very retarded if a company is using day cabs to pick up loads, then drop them off for bigger trucks.

If over weight, I won't pull it if there is a DOT scale on the route. If there is a scale on the way back to the shipper, then its for the company to figure out, and contact previous driver why they went past a scale without weighting it first.

Really sad that drivers don't care when they are dropping it. They should be fired for not scaling a load before it was dropped for the next driver, just like they should be fired for dropping a trailer with flat tires and not calling for road service to come out.

I was on a dedicated account, and knew where the scales were, and which ones were open. Even if a scale was only known to be open 3x per year, I still wouldn't chance it with over weight.

I don't trust the weight listed on the BOL. Many times shippers don't add the weight of the pallets, which could add another 2500 lbs? So when a shipper is giving you a 44,000 lb load and saying you can handle it, yeah... what about the weight of the pallets?

I've had about 7 or more trucks so far, and only 1 of them had the air suspension gauge thing for the drives, which was Freightliner Classic XL. Was really nice, as I could generally tell if my drives were over weight.

If a live load, I always attempt to look in the back to see where the last pallet is, and if the load appears to be evenly laid out. From there you can make a real good guess where to put the tandoms and if you'll be over weight on them.

I never heard of a company not reimbursing CAT Scale tickets, but it also doesn't surprise me. If your with a company making 25-35 CPM then it should be reimbursed. If your with really good company paying 40-50 CPM then I guess you could probably afford it out of your own pocket as long as every load isn't 50-200 miles. (Yeah, we all get short loads once in a while, depends on the average miles per load)

This whole topic should be a non-issue, and never expected to see a topic like this here. Common sense should have taken care of everything.