Full tank or not? Shipper...

If you start with 1/2 tanks and run down to 1/8 to 1/4 your range is still in the 500+ mile range. So basically you are going to fuel every day, perhaps twice a day. Let's say you have 15-30 minutes on duty fueling time per day to run that load. I'm not quite following the logic of folks saying you are "getting ripped off" to run that load.... because what? You are going to stop at a truck stop once or twice a day? Really? That's the reason why you are upset about following customer requirements for running a heavy load?

I think there are other matters that might be more important to make a stand than to say that particular customer is "ripping you off" by "forcing you" to stop at a truck stop once or twice a day.

Just learn how to manage your weights versus fuel and how to run a fuel route that gets you the best fuel efficiency and cost with that load. If you are an O/O and can pick and choose your loads and find it really aggravating to run heavy loads, then avoid it. If you are a company driver or otherwise under forced dispatch, then learn to deal with it.

 

Running so heavy you have to run light on fuel limits the options available on optimizing your fuel route, so yes shippers that demand we overload our trucks are ripping us off.

 

Well , we don't agree here....no problem. Maybe you are looking at it from an O/O point of view ( I was always a company driver and know very little about running a trucking business)...fuel mileage and purchases should be fractured in I'll agree on that , but you can't always assume that you'll be in a position to "look" for cheaper fuel "if" you start out with only enough fuel in the tanks to keep the "load legal"... all of the math you did was impressive...but it's all subject to assumption....come back with facts and we'll continue to discuss it. BTW , was a driver for over 40 years if you count every bit of my time...from beginning to retirement , and I can't re-call it ever taking me 2 hours to make adjustments to a load , scale , or to make adjustments sliding a 5th wheel or moving a trailer axle.

 

Again, if you are an O/O and not on forced dispatch, then by all means refuse to haul heavy loads. They pull down fuel mileage anyway. If you are on forced dispatch, then you need to learn to deal with hauling maximum heavy loads. The point is if you have to pick up a max heavy load you have a better chance of NOT having to rework the load or get a service failure if you arrive to the shipper with half full tanks. Getting a load reworked is going to lose you more money, even as a company driver, than stopping more frequently for fuel.

Some of these max heavy shippers have preloaded trailers that are already sealed. You have to be prepared to scale out and balance that load as best as possible. If you arrive light on fuel and balance out the load on the tandems and 5th wheel, THEN you can calculate how much fuel you can carry and still have your drives under legal weight. If you arrive with full tanks and can't get under legal weight then you have two bad choices, either run illegal and chance getting caught or go back to the customer and waste time getting reworked.

 

If you're getting loads that leave you overloaded with full tanks, you have a worthless DM. They know how heavy the loads are and a halfway decent one will call the shipper and tell them the upper limit you can haul and stay legal if you're picking up a preload.

I've had to haul for shippers that are notorious for maxing out trailers (I've rolled out at 79,975 or so several times). I've made it work and I was running with 300 gallons. Communication is key.

 

Amen...

... and when I receive communication that I'll get a service failure for arriving with anything but 1/2 full tanks or less I listen.

As a practical matter anytime I arrive at a max heavy customer I arrive with 1/2 full or less to ensure I'll be able to have the best shot at avoiding reworking the load. So far I've only had to undergo that time sink once, and it ate up most of a day.

 

Where does what the employee wants figure into it?

It doesn't seem very close to me. 100 gallons, let's call it 60. At a paltry 6 mpg that's 360 miles. I'm pretty sure a driver would have a pretty difficult task to not drive by available fuel in that distance. Can you elaborate on why that's too close?

Where does what is simple figure into it? You seem to imply it's too hard for drivers to manage their fuel.

I must have missed the post that recommended running over gross.

Can you be more specific... about what you consider snide... oh, wait, sorry.

 

Hopefully they didn't have dock workers with the same level of intelligence I had in Arkansas, where I started out 300 pounds under gross but 2k over on my drives that I could only shift to my steers which made them overweight instead.

It took 4 reworks and a fortune in CAT scales until they finally figured out the proper weight distribution to make it ride legal.

 

.... and all the while muttering, "Don't know why you are causing such a problem, we load everyone the same way and never had this problem before"....

.... yeah, you would think after loading a few thousand trailers they would learn how to load it the right way.