Bad First Impression!

RD knows the Diehl here. And yes, pun intended.

Scale everything over 30k… and that’s if you trust the BOL weight.

BK??? C’mon Man… it’s not about fault or blame; it’s about responsibility. It’s our responsibility once we leave the shipper. No exceptions.

RD is a really good driver, a pro! He knows it and so do we. The lesson? No one is exempt from trucker law; in this case unbalanced load/weight, and the potential consequences.

I’ve been driving past Mot scales for a year almost and it’s always been closed until 2 weeks ago and of course I was hauling an empty trailer lol. Never been outside of Ontario but i know Quebec has different regulations

Just for the record like G-town stated RD obviously knows what he is doing. In the grand scheme of things it’s not a massive blow to your driving record. But it’s still your fault. It will be on your psp report for three years. And depending on the size of the company you could end up footing the fine or paying the company back.

Again To say it’s not the drivers fault is just flat out wrong. It would be like saying you did a pre trip missed that the inner tire was flat, but it’s not your fault it’s the company’s fault for not maintaining their trailers.

Fault? It’s not his fault the trailer was misloaded. He didn’t load it or supervise the loading of it. It was likely sealed before he was able to look at the lading.

However he took full responsibility for the shippers action once he ran with it and didn’t weigh it. If you want to call that fault, fine. Nits are being picked here… but there is no ducking ultimate responsibility…and I think that’s the point.

Just for the record like G-town stated RD obviously knows what he is doing. In the grand scheme of things it’s not a massive blow to your driving record. But it’s still your fault. It will be on your psp report for three years. And depending on the size of the company you could end up footing the fine or paying the company back.

Again To say it’s not the drivers fault is just flat out wrong. It would be like saying you did a pre trip missed that the inner tire was flat, but it’s not your fault it’s the company’s fault for not maintaining their trailers.

You are right G-town not his fault it was misloaded. Bottom line I took issue with Bruce playing off an overweight violation as a no big deal. No ducking responsibility is indeed the point. And RD took full responsibility for it.

I agree with you…all good.

Remember many times my posts are designed for the lesser experienced folks frequenting this site. Thus attempting further clarity.

You are right G-town not his fault it was misloaded. Bottom line I took issue with Bruce playing off an overweight violation as a no big deal. No ducking responsibility is indeed the point. And RD took full responsibility for it.

RD references The “Right Weigh” system that Prime uses and it has helped me spot two overweight situations on pre-loaded trailers from same shipper that I confirmed with CAT scale weights. I then was able to return to shipper for reworks.

The Right Weigh system also saves Prime drivers from having to scale a lot of loads when the system indicates that the trailer and drives weights are well below 34k, thus saving time and $.

I picked up a load today in CA that is 47.3k lbs. My Right Weigh weights were TLR 33k lbs and Drives 31k lbs.

My experience on two loads is that the Right Weigh tends to be high compared to CAT scale weights.

Therefore I did not scale this load. I was prepared to check weights with the shipper’s scale if the Right Weigh weights had been at 34k or higher.

I had to enter a weigh station today on I-80 in CA and had no weight issues.

So yes, I just started with a new company this very week. I always think it's a good idea to make a great first impression.

Instead, here I sit at a weigh station in Virginia with a preloaded 36,000 lb load with the tandems slid back as far as the law allows (41ft), and I'm at more than 35,000lbs on the tandems and 22,000lbs on my drives.

What can we learn from this?

Waiting for company to figure out what they want me to do. I was unaware of this fact: Virginia will allow you to carry your load within its borders for 24hrs after an overweight citation. Unfortunately I need to go into North Carolina where another violation can be assessed if I get pulled into a weigh station in that state.

So what's the fine and do you have to pay for it if it comes to that?

I agree with you…all good.

Remember many times my posts are designed for the lesser experienced folks frequenting this site. Thus attempting further clarity.

You are right G-town not his fault it was misloaded. Bottom line I took issue with Bruce playing off an overweight violation as a no big deal. No ducking responsibility is indeed the point. And RD took full responsibility for it.

Such as me, and nobody answered!

Seriously . . if you'll kindly re read my question, is there a 'fine line?' A way to 'adjust/compensate?' The few bits I've been with Tom (besides asphalt tanks and lennels on flats) were hauling cardboard, in a 'doesn't matter' state, which is barely 16K with a single screw. When he's closer to 34/36, he runs the twins. Right?

Someday I'm gonna 'need to know' for myself. That's all!

Thanks!

~ Anne ~

Seriously . . if you'll kindly re read my question, is there a 'fine line?' A way to 'adjust/compensate?

Apologies, M'lady. It's been a long day. Even longer when you beat yourself up over things you should have done differently. I'm easygoing when it comes to others' mistakes. Very critical of my own.

Forgive me if I explain something you already know. Anyway. You asked if it could have been tweaked to make it legal. As in sliding the tandems back to take weight off those axles? Yes...to a certain extent. Many states have a limit to how far you can slide the tandems back. Virginia's law is that the maximum distance between the king pin and the point between the front and rear tandem axles can't exceed 41 feet. California in comparison allows only 40ft as measured from the king pin to the front tandem axle. Less room to play with there.

When I first crossed the scales I was given the opportunity to park and slide my tandems in order to make legal weight. The bad thing is that I only had about 4 holes to work with. Each hole on our trailers reduces the weight on the tandems by 500lbs and shifts that weight to the drive axles when the tandems are moved towards the rear of the trailer.

I was something like 3,000lbs overweight on my tandems when I first crossed the scale. After I slid the tandems back as far as legally possible in Virginia, I was still around 1,000lbs over the legal weight. There was no way to make it work.

I think you wanted to know, If I wasn't new to the company would I have taken my chances and ran with it. NO WAY. I already got a citation for it. Not going to make it any worse. I was able to drive it to another Saia facility in Virginia (I picked up in PA) to get the load "reworked".