Stupid question about pulling hopper.

Sounds like a good way to get started.

 

Guys pulling hopper around my area load them up.

 

Be careful loading up, KCC officers or Highway Patrol have been known to frequent those parts of Kansas, or at least they seem to find my trucks from time to time anyway. Can't say they always make you run across the portables, but you never know.

It's a shame that guys are put in the position of overloading their trucks to try and turn a profit with some of the rates that are offered this time of year. Can't say I haven't looked the other way a time or two when weight tickets come across my desk, because I know how things are. Guess the thing a guy has to ask themselves is, is adding the extra weight worth the risk of getting a ticket and possibly putting the current gig on the line.

Everybody's gotta do what they gotta do but here's my $.02. Be patient, if your carrier has good harvest work lined up that is usually where you can make good money on volume in a short amount of time. And if your carrier can follow the harvest a bit (summer and fall) it can be several weeks or even a few months of work. Like I've seen mentioned in other areas of this forum, bank the money when times are good (harvest time for hoppers) so that a guy doesn't have to put themselves in a compromising position when things get tough like now when there are so many trucks on the road and rates and volume plummet.

Wish you the best in your new venture, look forward to hearing about your experiences in the hopper world.

 

Shippers are compelled to show ALL scale tickets to dot should the showup to review them.

You can get an overweight ticket from that too.

Remember also, your scale tickets.also date/time stamps on them.

 

Congrats on your new venture!! I'm sure at some point you'll be sitting in the lines at Bunge in Emporia too. My little brother cut his teeth pulling hoppers. He's told me about the long lines at Bunge during harvest. It was nothing to wait 1-1/2 days to load/unload. We haul a lot of beans into there, and so far I've only had a 4-1/2 hour unload time. Catoosa, OK is known as Port of Catoosa, C & F Industries, Port 33, and yes it's just a little East of Tulsa on US-412, been there several times, hauling into and out of there. Major inland water shipping point, where the commodities get loaded onto barges. Quite the system they have. You check-in/scale-in, they ask how much you want to weigh. Then they give you 2 tickets, one you give to the loader. It will have your tare weight on it. You get loaded, then back to the scale, where you give them the one ticket back, if you accept the weight, you "digitally" sign, it's printed and you're on your way. If there were no other trucks, the whole thing would take no more than 15 mins, but plan on it taking at least an hour if things are moving fast. Hauling in and out, once you get unloaded, then you go get in another line to get loaded.

It's not uncommon for bulk to haul over-weight, some to the extreme. We've had a few drivers get away with grossing in excess of 100k. You just have know where and how to dodge the coops. However if you get stopped by a DOT bear, all he has to do is see your BOL and your screwed. I don't go to the extreme on weight, but due to the bridge laws, even though Kansas is 85.5, our legal gross for grain is around 78k. It's rare that I'll load that light. One little trick that we use is to load then fuel, that way you can get more product on, and your scale ticket will show a legal weight, just don't cross the scales. Also more and more of these elevators, and quarries are not allowing you to leave over-weight. They can get fined just the same as you, and have been. There's a couple of quarries that I load out of regularly, and I could easily haul over-weight and not get caught, but they will not allow a truck to leave over their tagged gross weight, OR the state in which the product is bound for. When I load for MO, they will not allow anything over 80k, even though I load in KS, am based in KS, and permitted to 90k. The upside for this, the small farm-type elevators look at you funny if you don't fill that trailer to overflowing. They just want that grain moved fast. I've had to load legal due to DOT setting up shop along the highway, and the guys tell me "everyone else loads around 100k". Those situations I just tell them, I need the money more than the government. Being a company driver the pay for hauling excess is not going to outweigh the fine. It would take about 3 months to make up that difference.

Along the same line, just an early heads-up on DOT party areas in my area. They will set up at Florence, KS, the KDOT mixing strip by the round-about on US-50/US-177, and at the junction of K-150/US-177/US-56. They just love these areas. So if your running through these areas, keep the CB on and you'll get plenty of warning ahead of time.

I noticed that you posted some rates. What I was told by my boss is that I'm never, ever, ever to discuss, mention our rates. Some of our drivers have done this and it got back to him by way of loosing contracts. Other companies will be doing everything they can to steal contracts. We just lost a contract by another company that under-bid by no more than a few pennies. I think they were just talking over the CB while running together, and it was overheard by some other trucking company. A good example is you will be pulling hoppers, I pull end-dumps, and there's a real dislike for us by the hoppers since we're competing for the same commodities. I've been seeing some hoppers from as far away as SD hauling rock, as back-hauls. This cuts into our bread and butter, just like us hauling grains cuts into yours.

So I'd definitely not broadcast what rates your getting to protect yourself and company.

 

Be sure to clean the tracks well . Some receivers check them very closely and may take a sample before accepting the load . They will look for particles a different color than the product you are delivering and ask to see the bills from the load you hauled previous to that one .
They particularly watch for things like meat and bone meal or glass or metal .

 

I have seen steps on hoppers.But none the less the owner should know how you get in there and sweep it out.Maybe next time you see a hopper,ask that driver how he sweeps the trl out.

 

When I went on wheat harvest in 2010 we didn't have any trouble in ok, ks or wy. Ne and mt watched us a little closer.

Dot in mt had me pull across some portables, I was under on gross but over on my trailer but he let me go without any warnings or tickets.

 

Thanks for all the helpful information everybody. Woke up this morning and thought about that load down to OK just going to have them load it legal by that time I should be around 5/8 or half tanks so they'll get an extra 1000lbs anyway. I'll let everybody know how it goes. Also mndriver thank you for the information about dot pulling scale tickets from the elevators/shippers. Did NOT Know that and need to tell my friend about that came out of KS the other day heavy and I mean really heavy. And after reading that I'd rather not risk it specially on a new gig. Gotta go pick some things up for tomorrow. THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP EVERYBODY!!! Take care and havve a good rest of the weekend and be safe this week!

 

The best is when they weigh your load in the pit. It shows your gross at 50 some thousand.

We spot some trailers in the field in the fall for guys if we have time. Ocassionally they get a little carried away and overload you. One of the pits at the main elevater we haul to weighs you in the pit so at least their is a way to make it look a little more legal.