Overweight Containers

Hi bob, when I hauled containers, I wasn't worried so much about the overseas ones, as the domestic stack ones. These ying-yang local drivers would load the wagon, and drop it at the rail yard. It's just going on the train, right? Yeah, well, i had to get it from the rail yard to the customer. After 5 years of that baloney, I had enough.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-zE82Kiv38

 

I pulled containers for a few months. A few Evergreen big shots from China showed up trying to get rate cuts and making excuses for shoddy equipment. Many overseas containers headed for America have false weights on the BOL's. If the actual weight is 70K they simply enter 38K and ship it.

I don't know how they monitor it in the USA now. I remember one container loaded with green logs/timber being shipped overseas. It was so heavy the tires were buldging on the chassis. The driver took a legal weight loaded container to the scales and got a weigh ticket, but used the overweight containers information on the ticket. Took the overweight container with the falsified weigh ticket one to the rail yard and never heard any more about it.

Probably couldn't get away with that these days. I don't know, got my fill of that junk so didn't stay long.

 

Another problem with overweight containers from overseas; the shipper doesn't care about the weight. It's expensive to break the load down and use 2 containers just to get the weights legal. The trucking companies won't say no just because the container is overweight; if they do they'll never get another load from that customer.

Lood at the shippers point of view. For example in the ports of California the fee for hoisting one container off a ship is $1500.00 plus all the other fees such as the cargo ship that brought it from overseas. Now you have the trucking company fee for picking it up at the port and delivering it and maybe a rail fee for using railroad services. Break that one overweight container down into 2 seperate containers and and that's double the shipping costs for that one load.

 

I remember hauling those containers, they were heavy as heck, and the tires always blew on the chassis. Made in China tires I do not trust-

 

I have been can hauling for years we specialize in hauling overweight containers of grain. The average weight in the box is 57,500 to 58k. We all run state permits for our state. We make good money doing it. Yes the chassis are junk but if you take a few extra minutes you can get one that is good. And as for tires a lot of guy's forget about this wonderful tool they came out with it's called a tire gauge so you can check the pressure. Can't always trust a tire knocker.

 

Can the truck company do a backcharge to the shipper or does the company eat the costs? I had one 37500 in drives 30000 on tandems on a 40' there was no way i could take it.

 

They can back charge them but most likely they won't pay. I pay $1,800.00 a year for my permits and that's for 2 states. I make that back in 2 days