Overweight! ... How Do You Handle It?
Topic 6952 | Page 1
Sorry can't really help with the overweight thing. I did want to just mention though about routing yourself around weigh stations. I know up here in the northeast the dot has been setting up shop a lot to catch trucks who avoid the scales. Be careful of doing this in the future.
That's all I got. Have a good day
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.
Sorry can't really help with the overweight thing. I did want to just mention though about routing yourself around weigh stations. I know up here in the northeast the dot has been setting up shop a lot to catch trucks who avoid the scales. Be careful of doing this in the future.
That's all I got. Have a good day
Ah! ... exactly the info I was looking for... will do
Getting these loads legal is an absolute pain in the A$$!
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.
Hey AJ, great to hear your feeling better. Heavy C is correct and I know you said that you've been delivering in NH also (Where?) Dot is just driving around a lot in there rigs, portable scales and all. Saw two yesterday in the Claremont area. They know that the cold weather alone tends to make for speedier pre-trips, add onto that some frozen slush on the truck or it snowing sideways, as it was yesterday and they basically have hit the lottery. Lots of logging going on and that in itself brings them out like bees to honey! or (BEARS to your money) Best of Luck
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.
OWI:
Operating While Intoxicated
If your truck has an apu on board, you get 400lb exception on your drives. You can run 34400 on them. With gross at 80400.. if you don't then you have to do your best to be legal.
I'm just slightly over on this. What I deed hereally was slid my trailer tandemso on hole back and moved 250lbs to my drives to make me legal on steers and tandems , now if you add that 250 to my drives you'll see I'm still ilegal to roll plus the 20lbs over gross, well I know I'll burn off that 20lbs in 5mile nearest scale is 60 so I'll be safe. And since I have an apu I'll get the 400 exemption for my drives.
So long as your under 12000, 34000, 34000 and 80000, your legal. No sense going and wasting time to get reworked. If your 20lbs over I can't say they won't but DOT my just pass you through. I have gone over a pre pass site over weight on trailer and got a green light. I was 80lbs over.
Just remember DOT does not have to give credit for the apu exemption.
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".
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.
APU:
Auxiliary Power Unit
On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.
Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.
I was 200 pounds over on my drives once when I was with Sygma (no APU) and I still got the green light on my pre-pass. I was heavy once with Prime but I took all my tarps off my headache rack and strapped them to the trailer on the back and ran the whole trip with fuel tanks only half full. Those were both pre loaded trailers. When I'm live loaded, which is most of the time, I keep a close eye on my gauge for my drives so I can have the load adjusted immediately if it gos over. I've had to do that twice so far and I know it saved me a huge headache and time.
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.
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.
HOS:
Hours Of Service
HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.APU:
Auxiliary Power Unit
On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.
Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.
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I have had several loads lately that are right on the line of being overweight.
The last one was...
11500 34220 33820 --------------------- 79540
Going back to the shipper and getting reworked is big down time, unless the situation is hopeless, which it was the time before this - there was no way I was going to get the weight off the trailer tandem , so I went back and lost a couple of hours off my 14 clock.
Now, this instance was so close and the excess weight was on my drive axle, I thought I could get close by burning off some fuel by the time I got to the first weigh station. I had 7/8 tank at weigh. I calculated at 7.15 lbs per gal. that I wasn't going to burn off enough.
So I routed around the weigh stations. This was easy on I 70 in IL because US 40 ran parallel and very close. I won't be so lucky in the future.
So, my question to the experienced drivers is - What is your rule for overweight loads?
Do you go back and get reworked every time it is borderline? Do you see if you can easily get around weight stations, like my last run?
I am about to read up on the subject in the High Road section, albeit a little late... lol Maybe some light will be shed on the subject there...
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.
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".