Discussion about weight and # of miles driven in a year

I still think your missing the point. If you can only haul 80k gross the rate will be X. If you can haul 105,500 the rate can/will be lower per ton. That reduces the rate.

 

so have u guys decided on what is safe? permits for overweight is safe or not? in ky my dodge is tagged for 6000lbs but truck with me in it weighs almost 7000lbs. so i guess i would be unsafe when hooked to a trailer with a truck on the trailer that puts me around 14,000 lbs. lol

 

Permits don't make it safe or unsafe. The person behind the wheel will.

 

I could see how that could be true, but not yet in bulk, it maybe coming. Our rates are not currently based on a sliding scale, I know so industries do. But so far we've dodged that bullet.

 

yeah i know, lol. alot for your truck vs car wrecks would not have happened if people driving cars paid attention and knew how trucks react in certain situations. kinda of like when a truck comes to a intersection making a right hand turn and the car sitting in the left turn lane just sits thier. so you have traffic backed up because the fourwheeler wont back up 20 feet

 

Not at all, Im rated for 12,500 on my steer axle, drive axle is rated at 20,000, the 3 trailer axles are rated at 20,000 each. These are manufacture ratings, as well as the standard set by the federal government. This means my doubles are rated at 92,500 lbs.

Now the State of California has set 80,000 as its max gross weight which has to do with streets, highways, and bridges. So when we run under a permit the state decides where it is safe for us to run, and how much we can load for the route and the equipment involved.

Has nothing to do with what we decide. Now if In pulling say a 6,7 or even 10 axle heavy haul drop deck then the state will change how much it can load and its routing according to size and weight. Now we may very well choose the equipment depending on the load but still the DOT has final say, not the driver or the owners.

 

If the load pays by the ton you'll get paid more.

If it doesn't pay don't haul it.

taking a 80k truck and adding an axle will do nothing to the road. The only thing that will see the increase is the bridges which are being upgraded when replaced.

Stop talking to the people who offered that rate. The loads I take pay by the 100#. For example If you haul a 40k lb load it pays say $400 for 220mi but if you take an 80k load (both are net) it pays $766 for the same distance. My fuel mileage is barely changed, tire wear is trivial. The extra axles carry their share and the normal axles see no change in weight. So in my case the loads aren't worth hauling unless the added weight was allowed. We can argue that adding weight lowers the rate but the fact is cut rate companies lower the rate, not load capacity.

Another example for me is with our trucks that haul grain. If I have to move 10k bushel, each truck hauling more cuts one or two trips off. So I make the same total money but make fewer trips. And unless your running in the mountains the added weight does nothing for maintenance.

Also for the guys hauling gravel or other similar products. If a pit has 1000 tons to move the more you can haul the more of the pie you get away from the other companies hauling from there.

Also, the part you guys don't get is if you don't want to haul the extra weight, don't. It's like the speed limit, your not forced to drive that fast. You company guys.....sorry the boss makes the rules.

 

You guys can say you don't like it or complain about the rates or whatever you want. BUT the fact is you can't have it both ways. You want the economy to grow which means more products need to be moved. The roads we have now are crowded and I'd rather pay to have an extra axle installed than have to buy another truck or hire another driver, or worse pay higher taxes to build another road. So unless you can come up with another way to move more freight with fewer trucks your going to have to deal with it. (and don't say rail because rail is great unless you want it damage free or have a month to wait for it)

I just cost me 13k to have 2 extra axles installed to make just under double the money per load. Or I could pay roughly $165k for another truck/trailer + a driver and the added maintenance to do the same thing.

 

Thanks for the response, JFaulk. You've got some good points. Maybe I'm looking at it from too narrow a view, but the elevator that I haul most for has 5 of their own trucks, add 16,000 to each of them and poof, they don't need me anymore. One of the biggest reasons I am suspect of the 97,000# deal is the ATA is backing it.....that says about enough for me right there.

 

Jfaulk you know who I'm talking about! you also know I don';t mind the weight, I just want paid for it! I don't want it so any moron can put a 60, 70,or 80k coill on and haul it not knowing what they are doing!