Winchester VA Scalehouse

Heard a couple of stories that they can be pretty rough on permitted drivers.

The worst example is checking axle spacing and finding the stated length off by and inch (either direction) and hitting a driver with a crazy fine of many, many thousands of dollars.

How can you justify a fine for a driver slightly overstating a parameter to be on the safe side. Especially if it's only and inch? What's an inch when you are measuring 37 feet????

I'm at the point where I'm hesitating taking a load through there.

Is my concern justified?

 

Another story which I verified, was a heavy truck ( I believe about 140k gross..... could be wrong ), crossed the scale and one axle was about 1,800 over. They revoked his permit, and fined him from 80k which came to about $65,000 fine.
Is this believable? It would put most out of business. This kind of stuff reminds me of a 3rd world country.

 

The question I would ask is... would they void the permit then apply the above from the legal limits? Then I could see the fines adding up pretty steep.