Axle Weights And Tandem Limits

OK, here's what happened to me today: I picked up a load, scaled it, and it was 1500 over on the tandem with them set to hole 14, which is the limit for several states I pass through. So I went back t the shipper , they reworked it, I scaled again and it was still 580 over. So I went back again, and this time they said "no way, the load is as far forward as it will go, it can't be illegal. My company called to talk to them but it didn't do any good, and now I'm sitting. So my question is, would you guys have done the same thing? Or would you have just gone with it. I was tempted to slide it back a few more holes and hope no one counted, since a lot of My day was already used up, but I decided not to. My manager told me I did the right thing, but he'd have to say that, so I don't know if they expected that I should take the load and accept the risk.

You did the right thing. I did the wrong thing in that situation once and I got lucky. I lost a night of sleep worrying about it though. If your company ever expected you to drive illegal, find a different company. I'm curious, would moving your fifth wheel have helped?

I don't think sliding the fifth wheel would change the weight on the tandems , but I could be wrong.

Those who may remember my "Sitting" thread from last Friday are familiar with my paranoia. Well, I'm at it again, because when they couldn't work it out with the shipper they told me to drop to there, and my manager said there was another load ready to be picked up and just to wait until it showed up on the qualcomm. But it hasn't, and the 2nd shift support just tells me they have no other loads for me at this time. I also looks like my NAT was set to Wednesday morning by someone, so now I'm wondering if they decided to let me sit for a day because I didn't just take the load. Of course last time I worried I had another load first thing in the morning...

I don't think sliding the fifth wheel would change the weight on the tandems , but I could be wrong.

Oops, I'm not thinking straight.

OK, here's what happened to me today: I picked up a load, scaled it, and it was 1500 over on the tandem with them set to hole 14, which is the limit for several states I pass through. So I went back t the shipper , they reworked it, I scaled again and it was still 580 over. So I went back again, and this time they said "no way, the load is as far forward as it will go, it can't be illegal. My company called to talk to them but it didn't do any good, and now I'm sitting. So my question is, would you guys have done the same thing? Or would you have just gone with it. I was tempted to slide it back a few more holes and hope no one counted, since a lot of My day was already used up, but I decided not to. My manager told me I did the right thing, but he'd have to say that, so I don't know if they expected that I should take the load and accept the risk.

Just out of curiosity, dies your trailer have Air-ride suspension? If it does and you set the emergency trailer brakes when scaling, many times this will also release air from your trailer air bags causing weight to be shifted rearward.

Just a thought.

Just out of curiosity, dies your trailer have Air-ride suspension? If it does and you set the emergency trailer brakes when scaling, many times this will also release air from your trailer air bags causing weight to be shifted rearward.

Just a thought.

I don't think so. I'm pretty sure it doesn't, it just has springs. But maybe there's something going on that I don't understand. I hope it doesn't turn out to be my mistake, but the people at the office have triple checked my info, and it seems like it's just a matter of counting to 14. Maybe the scale is off or something. Anyway, turns out I'm not done with it yet, because I'm still sitting and now apparently our customer service is talking to them about it, so I may be going back for a third attempt.

OK, now I actually think that they knew all along that I'm not getting another load until tomorrow, and they left the current load on me to avoid paying me layover pay. I talked to my manager an he finally admitted that I'm probably not going anywhere until tomorrow, and he also gave me some bs story about not being able to take the load off me until it was reassigned (they take loads off me all the time and it's never been an issue). What's layover pay, like $60? I guess I've found an upper limit of how much I'm worth to the company,

Kurt, I have had many times that laods were loaded wrong and spent all day running back and forth from shipper to scale. How close are you to 80k? You can tell if you have air ride just by looking under the trailer do you have air bags as well as springs? If so you have air ride. I always only pull the tractor brake when on a scale for this very reason. Second this is with any company I have be with the load is mine Intel you get relived of a load. I have had loads that I could not carry and intel the other driver showed up or the company signed the paper work saying I returned it to them. It's mine, and most of the time I just had to sit there and wait. Also I did not get lay over day it's not in my contract to. Is this a reeffer load?

I'd chill with the whole "paranoia thing" - at least where this load is concerned.

If it's not legal (and you can't get it legal), you can't be expected to run it.

Out of curiosity, what were the drives at, weight-wise - and (without breaking confidentiality), what kind of load was it, that they couldn't shift another 500 lbs?

A lot of shippers will attempt to get the last lb onto the load - even going over what they contracted for. Shippers KNOW how much they can legally stuff into a 53' box, but will frequently try to sneak an extra pallet or two on if they can get away with it.

Happens a lot with "bottled water" loads from what I've heard.

Rick

I don't want to be the guy that gives rookies bad advice, so the following is not advice. I'm just going to tell you what I would have done in this situation. Bear in mind that Daniel B. insists that I'm crazy for doing some of the stuff that I do.

What you are experiencing is a rookie dilemma. Once that load had been reworked, the first thing I would do is get to the nearest CAT scale and weigh it there. It may prove to be legal after all. I never completely trust the shippers scales. If I was still off by something close to what you stated then I would move the pin one hole back and roll with it. Now, that is just me, but I would rather take the slight risk and roll than be a stickler for a few hundred pounds that are going to turn out to cost me precious time and money.

Like I said, I'm not giving that as advice, but in this career as you loosen up a little you will figure out how to make a few compromises so that you don't get stuck in a bad situation. You also want to keep in mind that your dispatcher appreciates a good driver who can handle his own problems and make good solid decisions out here on his own. I know you are new to all this, but you are getting some good learning experiences from all this, just hang in there and do your best.

Let me add just a few personal experiences I've had along these lines:

I once picked up a load of steel slinky coils that was pre-loaded on a flat-bed. I was a little over 500 pounds of being legal on my drives, and my fuel tanks were full. I looked at my route, figured out where the first scale house was going to be, and calculated that I would burn off enough weight in fuel to put me really close to a legal weight at the scale house. I also skipped my next scheduled fuel stop and sent in a request on the Qualcomm to my dispatcher of where I wanted my next fuel stop to be set up with an explanation of what I was doing. He set me up and when I got fuel I just put enough in there to get me to the legal threshold of weight. I then finished that run and filled up on my next fuel stop. I realize that is a different scenario than you are facing, but it illustrates how you have to think out here to keep yourself moving.

I also picked up a pre-loaded trailer of pipe one time that had three stops on it. Due to the order of the stops the load couldn't be re-worked to make it any better. It ended up being over on the trailer tandems by about 280 pounds. I rolled that load over eight scale houses, each of them decided it was insignificant enough to not bother me about it. Does that mean that you will get a pass like I did? Absolutely not, but I took the chance knowing that it was a very small amount of overage. The load had a lot of miles on it, and I made the decision to roll with it - I was willing to accept the consequences so that I could keep moving. Decisions always involve consequences or compromises of some sort. You will get better at knowing how to handle situations like this as you gain experience, but there is always the chance that what you decide is going to backfire on you. Being stuck somewhere like you are without getting compensated really sucks, getting a ticket for being overweight sucks too. You will get better as you gain experience at knowing how to handle a situation like this.