Load is overweight

I don't make the laws, I don't enforce the laws, and I am liable for what I choose to hual. If the tandem distance isn't important than they can change the laws. Until they do that I will continue to refuse equipment and loads that would cause me to be driving illegally. Would I be fine 99.99% of the time? Yes. But I'm not risking my license, my job, and my livelihood for a company. The same companies that say 1,000 times on training to do this in legally and safely. If they want safety and compliance that means loosing time and loads. I'm sick of companies saying to be safe... Unless it effects them. Safety comes first. You could do a million safe miles but if you have one accident you're fired. So why put your neck on the line for a company who doesn't want you to risk it in the first place?

 

Fair enough. I should of said that I am almost always grossing 78500-80000, I am one of these guys where if the apple load is almost always 980 boxes, I do everything I can to load all of it. I don't cut a full pallet (2000 pounds) if I only need 1000 off. So often enough I have it figured out to the point I know how much fuel I will have by the time I hit the next scale. My fuel weight is 5 pounds to the steer and 2 to the drives per gallon ... my tanks are all the way forward. And my steer axle is only rated for 12000.

That is not to say, however, with a light load I will run the axles all the way forward. When it's light, I just put them at 41' to center of rear axle or so.

 

@Demonrogue , so what happened?

 

Is that a tri-drive with a heavy duty steer axle pulling a quad in Michigan by chance? No other way I could make sense of those weights assuming they are legal(ish).

 

Most ltl company's don't require drivers to weigh their loads. Driver gets the ticket, turns it in and never hears another thing about it. Occasionally they'll miss a ticket and a driver might get his license suspended for a couple days but it's rare. Overweight tickets are not rare in the ltl world. Certain runs get them nearly everyday. Company's like to avoid them but it's a lot cheaper to pay the ticket instead of paying the driver .62 cents a mile to bring the load back only to pay a dock worker $25 an hour to take the freight off. Then pay the driver while he waits then leave the customers freight on the dock for another day. They don't make us haul it or ask us but never complain about an overweight ticket. Even if it's over $500. I used to get them daily when I was a solar powered driver.
Some states will put them on your record. Alabama is one of them. It says, " disobeying dot rules and safety regulations" or something like that. Non moving and no points. We do have drivers that weigh their loads and have a coronary if they are over one pound. They'll sit for hours and run back and fourth to the cat scale. Hats off to them.

 

That reminds me I have a bag of popkorn in the truck. May have to pop it up when I get up to the old truck stop. Never liked Orville redenbacher Korn though.

 

Orville is good . At home I use the Stir Crazy... Mmmmmm

 

Nor would you for a tandem/kingpin ticket. It's just considered an equipment violation not a moving violation.

 

Not Michigan ,

but 20k front axle 46 rears and a tri-axle trailer. Good for 99k-107k in 7 states.....

And so many inner/outer bridge rules these guys heads would explode......

 

Wow. Just wow. I'm just a stupid rookie werner driver and I would have slid 4 holes back and rolled. But I keep my 5th wheel 2nd slot from most forward cause my kw likes the steers heavier vs light.
Don't know the shipper. But hell, I know loads upto 45,600 lbs I will be able to scale with full tanks.
Keep in mind my fiance rolls with me, plus I keep winter gear for the mountains.
Plus 2 bags of tools for emergency minor repairs.
Guy should have slid his 5th wheel forward towards the nose. That right there would have put another 500 on the front axle, taken 500 off the tandems, and then slid 3 holespots and been done.
I would have dropped 1100 miles in just under 21 hrs driving. He had how many days?
Come on.