Got An Overweight Ticket And Passed A Level 3 Inspection

Got an overweight ticket this morning for being 1800 pounds overweight on my drive tires, along with a level 3 inspection which I passed.

I was in a hurry to make the 280 mile drive back to the Walmart DC with a backhaul I picked up from Tyson, 37,000 pounds, slide the tandems and left as I would've made it back to the DC with minutes to spare. So I skipped the scaling process which I dont usually do on a load like this, but took a gamble and obviously lost this time.

The fine was $75, plus a $49 court cost.

Expensive lesson but many of us have taken the same chance. Great job keeping your equipment in acceptable shape.

Are you still enjoying working on that account?

Expensive lesson but many of us have taken the same chance. Great job keeping your equipment in acceptable shape.

Are you still enjoying working on that account?

Yeah, I don't always take a chance, but I've had a few times before and scaled legally when I got pulled in. But not this time, but I knew it was a gamble when I left and hoped for the best.

Oh yeah, a few things I don't like but that doesn't outweigh the miles I am getting on this account! I ran a little over 3300 miles for last week. I've been staying very busy. One thing I dont like is the very unpredictable work schedule, such as when I take my 10 hour break, I might get a load assigned to me but it might not be ready for hours afterwards, like two weeks ago I took my 10 hour break, and my load wasn't ready until 9 more hours making a total waiting time of 19 hours. It's hard to know when I should sleep, so I've been taking the chance to sleep any chance I get while waiting for my load to get ready.

But even with the long waits in between loads some days, I run 3000 or more miles a week.

Jamie, I'm guessing they didnt give you a chance to slide axles to be legal before writing you a ticket?

I've been taking the chance to sleep any chance I get while waiting for my load to get ready.

That is the right approach. Make sure you're ready to go when they need you. Sleep when you can, drive when it's time.

But even with the long waits in between loads some days, I run 3000 or more miles a week.

Well then life is pretty much perfect for you out there. If you can get 3,000 miles per week you're raking in the money, your company is taking great care of you, and you're doing a great job. That scale ticket is no tragedy. You take some calculated risks out there. You win most, you lose some. That's just part of playing the game.

Keep it up, man! Sounds like you're doing fantastic.

Jamie, I'm guessing they didnt give you a chance to slide axles to be legal before writing you a ticket?

Nope, they told me to park and bring my paperwork, etc inside and said something along the lines of "Heres the deal, I'm going to be writing you a citation for being overweight on your drive axles". After that, he asked me to send my logs over so he could go over those as well. Over all the guy was nice and respectful, just doing his job.

Well then life is pretty much perfect for you out there. If you can get 3,000 miles per week you're raking in the money, your company is taking great care of you, and you're doing a great job. That scale ticket is no tragedy. You take some calculated risks out there. You win most, you lose some. That's just part of playing the game.

Keep it up, man! Sounds like you're doing fantastic.

Oh yeah, Crete has been great to me! They have been keeping me super busy both when I was OTR and since I switched to this Walmart Dedicated account.

I almost laugh at the statement I made early on about being okay running 2500 miles a week. It has been extremely easy for me to hit 3000 miles a week, and that's with having a reset in every week. I typically run 500-600 miles a day, as all of our loads are round trips with the occasional backhaul like today.

Jamie,

Glad to hear that things are going well, subject to the overweight ticket.

Recently I got a 33,000 lb load. 3 drops in the Salt Lake City area....so I didn't scale. I don't for anything less than 38-39,000 lbs and that has worked for me. I beat feet out of CO, got prepassed in Laramie....even crossing the scale and Echo in UT. Got on 15 and 9 mi from the Corinne WallyWorld DC, the scale pulled me in, with the lady telling me I was 1520 over on my drives. She let me adjust them (did 4 holes) and was still 700 over. Because I was 9 miles away and it was food and they had that earthquake that morning, she let me go.

Couldn't figure out why cut fruit in cups was so heavy in the nose. However, being 3 drops, I didn't look at the paperwork all that closely. Seems drop 3 (which became drop 2) was boxes and boxes of whole cantaloupes. That's heavy! So lesson learned. Look at bills closer and scale if necessary .

Laura

Laura imparts some wisdom to Jamie...

Look at bills closer and scale if necessary .

Jamie my approach dealing with Walmart backhauls always begIns by reviewing the vendor BOL. The number of pallets together with the load weight should determine where to set your tandems and if it makes sense to scale. Until you gain more experience on the account, unless you are back hauling bagged salads or light paper products, scale it.

Remember Walmart reefers are heavy because of the 3-zones of temperature control (4 blowers). The nose weight is also higher than a dry van because of the refrigeration unit itself. 37k load in a Wally Reefer GVCW is likely 78k. I’ve never run a load over 39,000 in one of their reefers, and that’s usually out of Tropicana (OJ).

The devil is in the details.

That said, your numbers are excellent. Great job. The delayed dock out times are typical for reefer loads. Especially now...the DCs are crushed.

Safe travels!