Weight And Finding Scales
Topic 1637 | Page 3
Hey Danny....have you gone through our Truck Driver's Career Guide? That has a mountain of information in it and takes you throughout our site to all kinds of articles, training materials, and important forum conversations. I consider it essential reading for anyone considering a career in trucking.
It was my understanding that we were to take back roads and dodge D.O.T. scales.
Seriously, most truck stops will have a scale. Almost all Flying J/Pilot or TA/Petro truck stops will have a C.A.T. scale.
Dave
I would find a new company if that is their policy.
I was making a joke. The company I work for pays for the CAT scales.
Dave
CAT Scale:
A network of over 1,500 certified truck scales across the U.S. and Canada found primarily at truck stops. CAT scales are by far the most trustworthy scales out there.
In fact, CAT Scale offers an unconditional Guarantee:
“If you get an overweight fine from the state after our scale showed your legal, we will immediately check our scale. If our scale is wrong, we will reimburse you for the fine. If our scale is correct, a representative of CAT Scale Company will appear in court with the driver as a witness”
Cat Scales:
A network of over 1,500 certified truck scales across the U.S. and Canada found primarily at truck stops. CAT scales are by far the most trustworthy scales out there.
In fact, CAT Scale offers an unconditional Guarantee:
“If you get an overweight fine from the state after our scale showed your legal, we will immediately check our scale. If our scale is wrong, we will reimburse you for the fine. If our scale is correct, a representative of CAT Scale Company will appear in court with the driver as a witness”
At Prime, lease ops and O/O pay there own scales, company pays for company drivers. first thing I do is look at the billing of lading which will state gross weight. anything under 40, we don't sweat, just pop the tandem in hole 5-6 or 7 and check the in-cab guage to make sure the drives are good.
While my trainer doesn't use the trailer scale, My instructor did, and as long it is calibrated properly, is a great tool to balance the load.
Once we get up near 70K, we either scale on site, or as soon as possible. Most of the larger shippers have on site scales, from my experience. If we are over weight, then communication is key. Inform dispatch, and take the load back to the shipper to re-load.
We had one load, bacon I think, that was over by 1500 pounds. Because of the way the load weighed, I remembered The High Road Training Program, and how it talked about leverage. My trainer thought I was nuts, and slid the tandems back and forth, to no avail. We went back to the terminal , where they popped the seal and shifted the pallets. Terminal had a scale, and when we went to check, it was still over, this time by 600lbs. So they moved some things around again. Same result, only now 400lbs over. They were scratching their heads when I mentioned that maybe their was too much weight behind the tandems, causing leverage to increase the weight. Turns out, the shipper put a single pallet in the middle of the floor up near the nose. they did this twice. Well, once the terminal unloaded all the pallets, and stacked them all 2x2, the load ended just over the tandems, and not beyond. We re-scaled, and ended up under weight by about 200 pounds.
The info on this site is truly amazing.
Shipper:
The customer who is shipping the freight. This is where the driver will pick up a load and then deliver it to the receiver or consignee.
Terminal:
A facility where trucking companies operate out of, or their "home base" if you will. A lot of major companies have multiple terminals around the country which usually consist of the main office building, a drop lot for trailers, and sometimes a repair shop and wash facilities.
Tandems:
Tandem Axles
A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".
Tandem:
Tandem Axles
A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".
TWIC:
Transportation Worker Identification Credential
Truck drivers who regularly pick up from or deliver to the shipping ports will often be required to carry a TWIC card.
Your TWIC is a tamper-resistant biometric card which acts as both your identification in secure areas, as well as an indicator of you having passed the necessary security clearance. TWIC cards are valid for five years. The issuance of TWIC cards is overseen by the Transportation Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security.
I remembered The High Road Training Program, and how it talked about leverage...We re-scaled, and ended up under weight by about 200 pounds...The info on this site is truly amazing.
That is awesome!!! Man, that kind of stuff is a blast to read about. Tickles me to death. It's one thing to teach people something they need in order to pass their CDL exams (which we do) but it's just so much better to hear stories about how our training materials help with real circumstances out on the road. That's just golden right there. Thanks for sharing that!
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
- Any combination of vehicles with a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 or more pounds, providing the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing another not in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any vehicle, regardless of size, designed to transport 16 or more persons, including the driver.
- Any vehicle required by federal regulations to be placarded while transporting hazardous materials.
With my first trainer we were in wisconsin somewhere and the closest scale was 50 miles in the opposite direction. So we went to the closest en route scale which was 100 miles away with the hope that we were ok on weight. Nope. We had to turn around and go all the way back. Then we decided to go backwards to the closer scale in case they didn't pull enough weight off. They did so it was a wasted trip. It was a huge headache full of a lot of extra and unpaid miles.
DAC:
Drive-A-Check Report
A truck drivers DAC report will contain detailed information about their job history of the last 10 years as a CDL driver (as required by the DOT).
It may also contain your criminal history, drug test results, DOT infractions and accident history. The program is strictly voluntary from a company standpoint, but most of the medium-to-large carriers will participate.
Most trucking companies use DAC reports as part of their hiring and background check process. It is extremely important that drivers verify that the information contained in it is correct, and have it fixed if it's not.
When you leave the shipper , ask where the nearest scale is. Once I got loaded at a place that told me the nearest scale was the DOT scale down the road on the way out of town! They said to just tell him we had just left the place if he was there... he wasn't, so I just rolled over the scale and peeked inside and wrote down the weights.
Generally speaking, if you ask where the nearest scale is when you leave the shipper they will tell you.
Shipper:
The customer who is shipping the freight. This is where the driver will pick up a load and then deliver it to the receiver or consignee.
DOT:
Department Of Transportation
A department of the federal executive branch responsible for the national highways and for railroad and airline safety. It also manages Amtrak, the national railroad system, and the Coast Guard.
State and Federal DOT Officers are responsible for commercial vehicle enforcement. "The truck police" you could call them.
They said to just tell him we had just left the place if he was there... he wasn't, so I just rolled over the scale and peeked inside and wrote down the weights.
Nice! That was at an actual DOT scale you did that? Good one! That's one thing I don't think I ever did. Hey, that's trucking. It's all about doing whatever it takes to get the job done!
DOT:
Department Of Transportation
A department of the federal executive branch responsible for the national highways and for railroad and airline safety. It also manages Amtrak, the national railroad system, and the Coast Guard.
State and Federal DOT Officers are responsible for commercial vehicle enforcement. "The truck police" you could call them.
Nice! That was at an actual DOT scale you did that? Good one! That's one thing I don't think I ever did. Hey, that's trucking. It's all about doing whatever it takes to get the job done!
Yessir! It was a small outfit with a single shack that had the big round weight dial, like you used to see in grocery stores to weigh produce, which you could see through the window. I pulled the steers up, then the drives, then the whole rig to figure my weights. I want to say I had just got a load of apples in the middle of nowhere Washington state...
DOT:
Department Of Transportation
A department of the federal executive branch responsible for the national highways and for railroad and airline safety. It also manages Amtrak, the national railroad system, and the Coast Guard.
State and Federal DOT Officers are responsible for commercial vehicle enforcement. "The truck police" you could call them.
It was a small outfit with a single shack that had the big round weight dial, like you used to see in grocery stores to weigh produce
That's awesome!
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I love all these stories and bits of information, I wish I could meet all you guys face to face I could talk this stuff for hours. My wife says I'm obsessed by it. This past week I fell a nd sprained both wrist really bad so I have had to take off a few days from driving school bus, this forum has been a life saver to me, fortunately I could hold my kindle fire a nd type with one finger so all these post have help me past the time. Thanks to all of you, I just browse around the forum and read different post then I will work on my CDL test for awhile. I feel like when I do finally go solo that I am going to be prepared for the good and the bad days all because of Trucking Truth and all of you. So keep the stories coming
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles: