Scale

you are ok going over a scale after loading provided you are with in your legal weight range ... meaning if you have bills that say 52000 lbs and you can useually scale 46000 your screwed if 46 or under your ok ....that depends on your rig . you are supposed to weigh at the closest scale so you can't pass one . I won't go to far out of your way to weigh it ... they don't expect you to drive 50 miles out of your way ..... if you picked up a load and it's supposed to be 45000 and you get to scale house and weigh in at 84000 they just send you back to the shipper and axel weights are the same most dot guys give you at least 3 chances to make it legal

 

It's actually about the extra wear and tear on the roads from overweight trucks. I'm pretty confident the DOT officers aren't getting a bonus for writing more tickets.

 

Welcome to trucking world reality. Sometimes there is simply not enough time on a load to go 80+ miles out of route to scale. And sometimes traffic and rush hour and approaching shipper closing hours factor in. Didn't your momma tell you there would be days like this?

Glad we have pressure gauges on trucks and trailers but those or not 100% reliable when it gets real heavy and close, and most shippers won't rework a load without seeing an actual scale ticket.

 

Indiana dot are,on a bonus system other than that I don't know of any

 

EXACTLY! Can't repeat this enough. The DOT are not in the giving Mulligan's business. If you happen to get a wave off in these circumstances the DOT officer was being nice or you were inside the "unofficial" leeway they give. @Chinatown nailed it. NEVER under ANY circumstances cross a DOT scale with a load you know is heavy without getting it scaled. About 9 years ago I refused a load because I could not scale it.

 

Yes they do get bonus. That police department is given funds from the state for providing a public service in commercial safety. This little town that I live in doesn't even have a stop light but they added a DOT officer last year to catch trucks for inspection. It was all in the name getting more money from the state

 

Yep, it is called MCSAP. Local cops can go through the same training (most of the time through CVSA) and become certified DOT officers that can do inspections. Back in 2002 I had a St Louis City cop inspect me.

 

You can always write a letter to the county magistrate, after a weight ticket.
Explain the situation at hand. And see what happens.
I did this in Oregon on U.S. 20 or 30. And it was redacted.