Weigh Station

Got ticket in Ca, on I-15sb scale. Was 1500lbs over on drives. I scaled after i got loaded,was legal,but whole load of hay somehow moved forward in between Utah and weigh station in Ca. After adjusting best i could do is to be 800lbs over on drives. He gave me a ticket for 800lbs over,and it was only 150$.
Friend of mine was 1600lbs over on trailer axle while crossing Az scales coming out of Ca and got 1600$ ticket.
Few friends were allowed to adjust weights at Va,IL and Oh scales without tickets.

 

FYI, One weight ticket can cost more than a year of PrePass.

 

I'd guess about 50% of the prepass equipped scales use weigh in motion, and they are accurate. I went over i70 EB entering Colorado from Utah and it redlighted me for being 34300 on my drives but my trailer was exactly 34000 as per their static scale. I could see when called inside for a level 3 that my carriers name was red on the prepass screen with tandem weight as the reason. Others were getting 5% pull in. Most everyone was getting the green. They said I was illegal for Utah and I said I thought I was .... but in CO I am good for 36 per tandem. I could not fix it anyway, still under gross. Prepass costs I think $25/mo for the bypass service. It is more than worth it when combined with ezpass for toll savings.

 

@gokiddogo If you use the OOIDA discount, prepass is $15. Add another $5 if you go through "bestpass" to get integrated tolls (which prepass won't sell to a 1-truck carrier)

Prepass uses the FMCSA's ISS score, which is a derivative of csa, along with an algorithm based on the time since your last inspection.

Weight violations do not count against you for csa/psp/iss, so they won't increase your pull-in rate with prepass. That doesn't stop an individual scalehouse or state from overriding prepass' recommendation, but you shouldn't be getting more red lights nationwide because of a weight ticket.

That said, prepass is biased against small carriers because it is in part based on how recent your company's last inspection was -- the more time that has gone by, the higher your pull-in rate will be until you get a new inspection. A large carrier has someone getting inspected weekly. A 1 truck carrier could go years between randoms, so they'll be pulled in more than their fair share. I'm dealing with that now -- once I hit 1 year since my last inspection, prepass started giving me random days or weeks where I'll get a red light 1/2 the time. Before 1 year, I got green basically every time unless the scale overrode prepass and was pulling everyone in.

 

Does inspection level matter? I have had 4 or 5 level 3s in the past 2r months. Have not had any 2 or 1 in recent memory while in usa. It seems to give me green almost always even when it looks like it is pulling lots more trucks in. *knock on wood ....

I am not associated with ooida ...... when I got my prepass+ they made me decide if I wanted the ny or MD version. The ny version saves me a lot more mainly on ny bridges. It is also a lot easier than carrying paper receipts .... my times always match my log so for me it is a good system so far. Saves lots of time too.

 

Ok,question for more experienced drivers,im using drive wyze app on my phone,and im getting green light 90% of the time. Now,for example if im in La or Ga where they have WIM signs and if i get "bypass" on app and "truck must exit to weigh station" on the WIM,which one do i follow? Im guessin WIM instructions?

 

Well, for prepass, it says to disregard what the wim signs say and only enter if redlighted .... not sure for waze. I would just keep trucking. I don't think it will set off a buzzer inside if you bypass with the green light and wim said come in.

 

Always follow the weight station instructions unless you wanna get chased down for by passing a scale if the have extra LEO's at the station to send after you.

 

You have to exit.

 

Does the wim and prepass/waze system not communicate with each other?