Night Dispatch: The bane of my existence.

It's getting harder and harder to talk to night dispatch without wanting to throw my phone. I picked up a relay early this morning, fueled, and then despite having the scale ticket from the previous driver, got the feeling I needed to scale. Sure enough, my steers came up 13180. Well, I sent I q/c message asking what they'd like me to do.

After waiting a few minutes with no reply, I called in and talked to one of "them" only to be told he didn't understand what the problem was because in my early morning fog, I typed 'drive' instead of 'steer'. Alright, my fault, but wouldn't common sense take over and he'd realize what I meant? Obviously I wouldn't be concerned if my drives were that light. Apparently not.

At any rate, he kept asking are you sure it's 13180 and not 12? Finally I'm like, "Listen, I'm looking at the scale ticket and it says 13180." So he gets defensive and says he wasn't questioning me on that. What was he questioning then?

Well, I told him I could burn off enough fuel to be legal before I reached any scale (yes it's still illegal at first, but you know how that goes) and then he asked how I planned on burning off 700lbs of fuel? What? This one threw my for a loop. Last time I checked, the legal steer axle weight was 13000, correct? He agreed with me but stated our tires can only support 12500. Never heard of that before. Now he's questioning what the previous driver scaled in at. What does that matter?

After it's all said and done, he doesn't feel comfortable authorizing me to go ahead and will send my FM a message. So here I sit. Believe me, him telling me to sit is not what I'm irked about. It's the direction that conversation, and most conversations with night dispatch go.

Anyway, that's my night dispatch rant. Sorry.

 

Last time I checked, the legal steer axle weight was 13000, correct? actually its 12,000..............but yeah

 

Actually, and you veteran drivers feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, there are only four states that are 12,000. The rest are up to 13,000.

 

ya gotta realize... night dispatch is a loosely tossed around term for moron working the night shift and probably cleaning the can in between giving out po's for flat repairs.

you been in corporate after dark???? you're lucky they spoke english buddy... lol

 

Actually the correct breakdown for axle weights in a tractor trailer are 12000 for steers 34000 for drives and 34000 for the trailer tandem. Now there are some states that allow heavier axle weights PROVIDED you do not exceed 80000 lbs (unless you are permitted for more weight).

My question is why didn't you slide your 5th wheel? Most trucks have a sliding fth wheel which will shift the wight. In your case 13180 lbs would have required you to shift the 5th wheel backward 3 notches or holes. Each notch or hole equates to around 500 lbs. This 1500 lbs would have been transferred to your drive tires. In the event this made your drives too heavy (exceeding 34000 lbs) then you would slide your trailer tandem forward to relieve some of the weight from the drives. In the case of the trailer tandem each hole on the slide equals about 250 lbs. By sliding the trailer tandem forward (toward the truck) you shift more weight onto the trailer tandem and by sliding the trailer tandem away from the truck you put more weight on the drives.

 

from what ive read alot of states if not all allow up to 20,000 on a single axle, which the steer is. you can up to that 20,000 as long as the tire is rated for whatever weight you have on that axle. found out the hard way about the 20,000 deal at a scale.
and to the previous poster, not all fifth wheels move 500 lbs each notch. mine only moves about 100.

 

I'm guessing that the OP new about this and how to fix the weights if he could have. His point is about the cerebrally challenged, and almost disabled, people that drivers deal with on the night dispatch desk. And I agree 100%. Night/weekend shift is short-handed big time to start with, so it makes no sense at all for a company to put idiots in there. For example, my company has approximately 4000 trucks. Know how many people works the road service desk night/weekends? One.

 

I'm aware of the textbook break down, but thanks. Also, I pull spreads so I can have 40k ( 20,000 per axle) on my trailer tandems. We don't have sliding 5th wheels either. I had to dump my lumber tarps and some chains to cut weight.

 

Based on the OP's response it appears he does not have a sliding fifth wheel. I would have run the load regardless provided the gross weight did not exceed 80,000 lbs and not called dispatch at all. It has been my experience that many dispatchers do not necessarily have any concept of how to drive a truck let alone adjusting the weights on 1 and therefore I do not bother them. They are trained to answer the phone, read the information from the computer, type messages, and in some cases look up directions. I learned a long time ago to take care of "problems" myself rather than involving 'night dispatch.'

I was not trying to disparage Dr. Venture or his post. I have found many new drivers have never even heard of a sliding fifth wheel let alone how to adjust 1 so I offered some advice on how to adjust the weights. Regretably it did not apply to his situation but perhaps it will help someone else.