What is to stop an overweight tractor-trailer from avoiding all weigh stations?

When I hauled containers out of the port at Biloxi and New Orleans. We would run hwy 90 all
The time instead of using interstate 10
The max weight on I-10 was 80k but on hwy 90 was a Much higher weight limit .


because the weights we hauling were LEGAL on hwy 90 but not legal on the interstate .
That’s correct, the old rickety drawbridges over the canals on hwy 90 from Nola to Biloxi had higher than 80k legal weight limits.

plus you’d avoid 4 weigh stations.

 

It's not that one truck will collapse a bridge. It's that each truck does a certain amount of damage, and the heavier ones do more damage. The IFTA tax is supposed to cover the damage, but if you're too heavy then it's the same as not paying enough IFTA. Plus the tires, brakes and suspensions are only built to handle so much weight, and if you go over then it starts to become a safety issue. Plus can you imagine if they didn't scale any trucks, how ridiculous truck weights would become? Lol.

 

My buddy runs gravel and takes a overweight risk every day. He only dumps once if he's over and hopes for the best but he is only minimally over.
Anyone who runs by the ton knows exactly what it's about and the guys who run 10 ton over are the ones who are damaging infrastructure, who the scales look for and the locals hope to nap going around.
I run tank and we try to hit 80K every trip.
We won't leave if much over 80 but axle weight can vary w unit and nobody complains about the drives or trailer axles 1000 lbs over imho.

 

Yup, I've been green lighted at several scales at less than 1k over, but I wouldn't expect that at every scale, for example i90 westbound into Minnesota where they measure each axle separately. I've heard of guys get nabbed there because one axle was over 17k even though the pair wasn't over 34.

My only trouble was 1.5k over on my trailer one time, but I had somewhat of an excuse because the shipper lied.

The officer said they give 1k leeway but he couldn't let me slide at 1.5k over. I showed him my BOL picked up a couple hours prior, listing my cargo at 26k, he looked at my scale readout proving it was more like 43k, and said there's a couple scales between there and here, you could scaled. I said yeah but they took so long to load me and they claimed it was only 26k, I figured I'd scale at my fuel stop which is just up the road from here, 2 birds with 1 stone, cuz I'd never seen a shipper be off by anywhere near 17k before. He looked again at the scale readout and the BOL and said well I have to put it on the inspection but I won't write you a ticket. So I got a level 2 inspection with overweight tandem corrected at the scene as verified by the same scalehouse, and no fine.

Sad part is I was new enough that I didn't yet know I shoulda hit up the broker for more cash under threat of returning the load to the shipper.

 

There is another transponder on a pole after the bypass. If your ezpass or whichever device doesn’t give the proper signal that you were given a bypass, it sends a signal they can and do chase drivers down. Also your prepass unit records when you go by them even when closed and not giving you a signal. You can check by your bypass units number all scale information online.

 

That's like the coop before Syracuse on 81. If there open there's a good chance they be sitting on 281 picking off guys trying to skirt em

 

Nothing to stop you. When I hauled lumber into the US we were always dodging scales in Wisconsin,,,Iowa and Mn were not so anal. Just the nature of the business. Was usually only a 1000 lbs or so,,,but up here we’d be allowed 10% over (or 14,000) on a set of wagons.

 

Well you probably can't avoid the coop on Plantation Key in FL

 

Scales on the east are pretty easy to detour.

California could be easy. Not so much for the rest of the west.

 

Tell you me why nobody has posted that Elmer Fudpucker song??