Citation for overweight drive axle

I have Driver's Legal Plan, not US Legal Services. Driver's Legal Plan said if I used them, there would be a $100 attorney fee and I would have to pay $16.95 for MVR or submit MVR to them. The lady I was talking to at drivers legal plan said she had another case in the past with an overweight driver axle fine of $682, and drivers legal plan got the fine reduced to $552. That's hardly any savings at all. So I think I will just opt to pay this fine and not use Driver's Legal Plan.

 

I just talked on the phone with the Safety Officer at my company that is handling this. My company will pay the fine, and then my company is going to deduct $70 from my paycheck every week until my company is completely reimbursed for the $752 fine.

 

Yeah I agree. I didn't think of that strategy when this happened because in nine years of trucking, this was the first time this ever happened to me.

After this happened but before I created this thread, I did think of that strategy myself.

Two of the big benefits of that strategy is my company will pay for the freight to be re-worked (if re-working the freight is necessary), and my company will pay for a second scale ticket. And I don't have to reimburse them for the costs of re-working the freight or for the second scale ticket.

 

Yes but it doesn't matter. I still have to reimburse my company

 

My company told me that my company is going to pay the fine, and then my company will deduct $70/week from my paychecks until my company is completely reimbursed.

Since my company is going to directly pay the fine to Virginia DOT, I won't have to go through the hassle of all the rigmarole to pay the fine. When my company deducts the money from my paychecks, it is more simple and less hassle for me.

 

Another thing I could have done is strap the rolls of paper at the shipper to make it less likely that there would be a load shift.

I know that if I slammed on the brakes hard (extremely hard) enough, the rolls of paper would break the straps (or tear the track on the wall of the trailer that holds the straps off the wall of the trailer), and the rolls of paper would still slide to the front of the trailer anyway blah blah blah----But having straps holding the rolls will prevent load shifts on more minor hard brake events. I think if I originally had the load strapped when I left the shipper, this load shift probably would not have happened. I didn't have to slam on the brakes so hard that there would be skid marks on the road.

My pickup at the shipper was a live load, but I did not put load straps on the load. I put the load straps on the load when i got the freight re-worked though.

When i was a rookie in 2013, one time i tried to brace a load of rolls of paper with a load bar at the shipper. When I got to the receiver, the load bar was laying on the floor and was severely bent by the rolls of paper. The forklift driver at the receiver pointed to the bent load bar laying on the floor of the trailer and said to me "What type of moron does that?" LOL I created a thread about that here ten years ago. But I suppose it is okay to brace a load of rolls of paper with load straps.