Is being loaded overweight a breach in contract?

I do not recall ever driving an air ride truck, that didn't have a gauge in it, I suppose some don't though. I have pulled a lot of trailers that didn't, but I had them on all mine, the one I had to add one on, seems like the gauge wasn't much more than ten or twelve bucks.

 

Most don't. My truck and one other have had gauges . All the rest, more than 20 in 20 years didn't have pressure gauges.

 

Jesus, even an old 74 RL mack I had had a gauge in it and it had walking beam suspension, but still had a bag on each corner of the beams, a page suspension set up iirc.

My old 88 freightliner started out life with a spring set up, but was changed to air trac by the original owner, it actually has 3 gauges in it, because he had a lift axle and air on the steer too.

 

Shippers know or should know the weight of their product, they will never add the weights of the pallets though, and sometimes that makes or breaks the loaded weight on a tight load.

 

Of the 30-40 trucks I drove at my last job maybe 2 had pressure gauges. This job of the 30 tractors in the yard exactly zero have pressure gauges, although half a dozen trailers do.

 

You guys must be driving some bare bones trucks, do they have passenger seats? lol
Back in the 70's I broke down and a freight lines driver picked me up, I had to sit on a big fire extinguisher. lol

 

I knew a guy who drove a cabover Freightliner for Corn Flakes, he said it had 3 gauges, an air pressure gauge, a coolant temp. and a speedograph and no, some trucks I drove did not have a passenger seat.

 

I used to do a lot of road service on roadway trucks. They actually had no gauges and only a couple of idiot lights. They just had a speedo that was marked for the gear you were suppose to be in. lol
I understood that they bought the trucks with no factory warranty.

 

Some shippers give the freight weight but don't consider the weight of pallets or packaging. Never trust a shipper, always weigh your load if your not absolutely sure. Bottom line is you failed your responsibility to make sure you were legal before hitting the highway. Take it as a lesson learned and move on. Also remember that just because you got one ticket at this station don't mean your in the clear. You can be ticked at every scale you pass over until the deficiency is corrected. My friend argued successfully a overweight that there was no way per the bills he could have been over. So the scale master made the ticket out to the company he worked for rather than the driver. Rare occasion. Ultimately, you are responsible.