Overweight on Trailer tandems

too late I already tagged him! lol




American Trucker

 

What they were saying is that is was your job to know how much weight you can put on any axle group at one time. Basically the standard is 12,000, 34,000 and 34,000. This is information you should have known before you got your CDL. The shipper might not have put the load in the "wrong way", maybe he put it in the only way it would fit or the only way that would keep things from sliding out of their racks.

 

You're the driver and you're the one responsible to ensure you are legal when heading down the road. If you are concerned about the axle weights and the shipper doesn't have a scale then you need to go to the nearest scale in order to verify. It doesn't matter if you have 5 months experience or 5 years.

Look at the cost of the ticket as part of your education... I bet you won't make that mistake again.

 

Justin. You are trying to tell us there was not a truck stop scale anywhere on your route before you hit the DOT scale?

Any time I am loaded over 40K, I scale my load. This still bit me on the backside earlier in the year. I received a $66.50 ticket in Idaho for 1560 over on my drives. With a 38K load and my tandems all the way forward. Totally my fault.I scaled at a truck stop, fixed my tandems and then did not reweigh. The ticket did not go on my CSA because there was no inspection and it was written under Idaho code, not FMCSR.

For newer drivers, I recommend scaling every load over 35K until you get the feel for it. No scale at the shipper is pretty common. Go to the truck stop and weigh your load!

 

I have agree with the "scale the load" crowd. Scale the load and return if you are loaded over or wrong.. Don't ever assume just because the bills say x weight is on the truck that they did lie. Shippers will try to get away with overloading you if they can.. I recently had a bill say 36k was loaded. When I scaled I was 400 pounds over gross.. With full tanks my truck can take right at 46k.. Shipper tried to tell me they forgot to factor in the pallets.. my response to that was "and you have been shipping how long."

$9.50 at the CAT scale is a whole lot cheaper than the ticket and potential downtime you could get... csa points or not...

 

He said he weighed the load !!!!

But dispatch gave him incorrect info, that he should have known anyway !!

 

I read the OP as saying he got the weight when he went across the coop scale in Indiana.

 

Guess I misunderstood,

Disregard,

carry on.................my bad.............whoops !!!!

 

Not trying to be harsh on you, but at 5 months, you've carried enough loads to stop making excuses.

Even if you have to go 20 miles the opposite direction, scale the load. That $10 is the best insurance you can get.