Need advice on an overweight issue.

How heavy was the load? How far did you have to haul it? What kind of load was it? The reason I ask these questions is I use to drive a dump truck and hauled contaminated soil. Some times the loads were heavy but,we hauled them short distances.
But on the other hand if your boss is expecting you to take a over-weight load something is wrong. If you get stopped or heaven for bid have an accident It is bad news for you.
I would talk to your boss or safety person and tell them about your concerns. They should not ask you to take an overload.

 

you are the captain of the ship if you haul a load and scale that load and take it and have an accident you my friend will be the one going to jail as your boss will deny he told you to take it

but if you take a load and it was not scaled you will get a ticket and depending on the cop they may make the ticket out to the company or to you which you would be responsible to make sure the ticket is payed

 

It's a question that you need to decide how to handle.

If you don't want to haul overweight loads you should start looking for another job if they require you to do it. What you need to do is Capture this discussion on a recorder and then call your state police with the recording while in the overweight vehicle to come and DOT you.

Then you say "sorry boss, I was DOT inspected had to cover my butt. Do you still want me to pull these overweight loads when I call to tell you they are overgross?"

Or you can just leave and find another job. With 6 months experience you may have found someone just looking to take advantage of you. I ran into a guy that worked for a Tow Truck/Tractor Trailer outfit in CT. He told me stories of running without a CDL and pulling permit loads. He eventually got a CDL but did all kinds of things he shouldn't have because it was a job and it was paying the bills.

 

Be carefull with the recordings. It is illegal to record someone if they don't know it's happening. If they sent qualcom messages, you can take pictures of the screen. I've heard of people doing that before.

 

Let's see...they said they'll put a load refusal in your record, for refusing to pull an overweight load. I'd tell 'em go ahead, unless they're willing to give you permission in writing to take the load, you should refuse it, period. To me, that's not much of a threat, especially since the refusal would be for a good reason. They taught us in driving school to refuse such loads. It's your neck if you get caught, the ticket will be coming out of your pocket, unless they reimburse you for it. Sounds kinda unlikely though.

 

Tell em you'll pull it..................................with a permit.

 

The legality of recording someone without their knowledge varies state by state - so you need to check how that works in the state you're in. Also whether its admissible in a court proceeding - probably isn't without permission of the person on the other end.

Qualcomm records are recorded on disk. The screen can be photographed as well - cell phone cams are a lousy way to do it. Get a good digital camera. This is certainly the way to go if they are dumb enough to direct you to do something illegal.

 

Yea.. some states don't allow this in court. Some only require one of the two parties knowing about the recording.

The purpose of the recording though would only be to show to the DOT officer you called to DOT you so they know why you called.

 

Regardless of what you do, you'll be limited to only 2 conclusions.

Pull the load, or find another job.

While you may call the DOT, and you may keep your job. NOBODY can force a company to provide you with enough miles to pay your bills.

THIS, is the reality of trucking that nobody wants to tell you about.