GVW with loaded trailer

What kind of trailer are you talking about?

Hotshot?
Tandem axle?
Spread axle?
Tri axle?
Quad axle?

You don't scale the load as a pre inspection. You scale the load after it's loaded.
It's the drivers job to make sure he's legal. Before leaving shipper.

 

This isn't meant to be a butt chewing. BUT.
Basic Information like that is something you should already know. And so should your driver.
34,000 is max weight for tandem axles. That means truck and or trailer. 80,000 gross weight.

That's the penal code.

Keep making dumb mistakes and you'll be out of business before year end.

 

There is NO penal code requiring weighs after getting loaded. come on now that's excessive government interference and control.

EVERY LOAD without fail where POSSIBE has been WEIGHT at a cat scale or public scale immediately after loading. And tandem, 5th wheel etc adjusted as needed to meet the 34000 pound on drives and 34000 pounds on tandem with one exception up to 40,000 on 10' 1" spread axle trailers. (20K per axle split) The steers would be whatever they were within reason.

Depending on state wheel base king pin laws that is the next issue to be met and made legal.

SOMETIMES that load is WAY TOO heavy and needs either a PERMIT or return to shipper and take it off. Or worse case scenario dispatch a empty Tractor Trailer to meet me and we back to each other's doors and transfer enough to load him a little bit share the weight. Any number of options.

In short. That truck WILL be LEGAL at 34000 drives, 34000 trailer tandems before proceeding on the rest of the run.

It is the right, professional and proper thing to do always after loading. Common sense. If the air suspension gauge shows say 52 pounds I can guess that the drives are very close to 34000 but will find me a CAT scale and weight it to be SURE.

Exceptions. Ocean and train containers. Carried a standing permit in two states at 110,000 gross weight in Maryland and Virginia with them 40 foot boxes or even the 20 footers. A load of ball bearings filling them up in Richmond going to Europe via Baltimore Seagirt will exceed 110,000 gross and likely approach 135000 gross by maximum weight capacity in the box doors in pounds against what they give you on the bills of lading. IF you only had a 110,000 pound permit then you are seriously overweight and stand to be fined should you hit a state DOT scale with it. So you arrange for a bigger weight permit to get it to Baltimore based on paper weights. YOU NEVER take those boxes onto any scale.

I had a load out of Harrisonburg one day. The truck essentially broke trying to leave the dock. When your entire drive tandem wheel sets, all 8 duals lean back and forth a foot each way swaying side to side as you move at walking pace you have a BIG problem.

We hit the Stephens City Scales on the interstate when it was a platform in those days. Put the steer axle on it sunk it 8 inches. I stopped there. Police says GET THE REST OF IT LETS GO. Ok... Scales fell another 8 inches with the drives. When the trailer touched it the whole thing slammed down another foot into the skeleton steel beam structure int he basement below saving my life.

The Virginia DOT wrote me for 134500 which was the last number captured by computer as it failed. The theoratical paper weight was in the order of 150,000 gross. Fines? 3000.00 dollars. This is late 80's money. Equal to roughly 8000 dollars today.

Do you have 8000.00 dollars after Virginia writes against the trucking company for the driver screw up and company shipper failures in loading too heavy?

Never again. Almost 12 hours later it was in baltimore at the port. Tractor was totaled. Junked. Gone. (Mid 60's era mack daycab Offset model) The most dangerous moment before baltimore was the walkersville bridges. They were scheduled to be blown up in two weeks time. I picked them because if it was to be destroyed anyway might as well be me and the big steel truss will take a little time to collaspe. It took the load. But sang in ways I will never hear a bridge groan ever again in this lifetime. They blew it up a few weeks later.

For me that load is the example of everything going wrong. The worst day ever. It should never have happened. Never. Training? ZIP. ZERO. NADA> SO its the shippers fault and the company fault. And my fault too for not backing to the dock and telling them to take it all off. Everything was wrong that day.

Never again.

ive had minor overaxles here or there or maybe 1000 over 80000 gross etc. No biggie. Whoops pay the fine and go on.

Oh yes indeedy. Weight every load. You dont need Government penal code to require you to weight a load, come on now... over depending on them? HA... forget it. pay the 11 dollars to CAT Scales and be legal. Once you have that if DOT fines you on that load then you take that ticket to court with the CAT scale reciept showing legal weights. Date and time prior to the DOT fine. That will be ok.

If you DID NOT CAT the load before going on your way and you got fined at the scales? So solly. Pay em honey.

 

You arent understanding what was said. It is not part of the pretrip inspection to scale the load just after you get loaded so you aent overweight. If your driver desnt understand that maybe hed be better off doing something else or at least get him out of your truck cause if he doesnt understand this simple concept what else doesnt he understand/do

 

Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR)

Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR)

Compilation of Existing State Truck Size and Weight Limit Laws - Appendix A: State Truck Size and Weight Laws - FHWA Freight Management and Operations

 

How do you have a driver but dont even know first day on the job rules/regulations?

Pretty ridiculous. I can only imagine what type of drivers are under your payroll.

What else dont you know?

The blind leading the blind out here, what a shame.

 

You don't have to scale the truck or the trailer if you don't want to. You can pay the fine at every scale house or till you run out one money. Some scale house might make you or your driver get Legal before leaving. You can pay for a tow truck to come an unload and reload the trailer. They probably charge couple hundred per hour, but if you got the money they can do the job.

You can also look in the front of Truck Road Atlas. It tells all the legal limits for each state. That's sad the driver does not even understand this basic part of driving a truck.