Got My First Ticket. Grrrr.

This past weekend i made some careless choices. I got an overweight ticket carrying a heavy load from proctor n gamble. 45,000 pounds of weight.

My employer gave me a verbal about making sure to scale and im like okay of course. I missed the part about it being a CASH ONLY SCALE on site.

My employer also said dont leave without scaling.

So i get there and find out that it cash only and because my time was running out and i didn't have cash i said lets scale later the clock is running down. I slid my tandems as far forward as they would go thinking it would help. Later that night i get to loves and its one of the smallest loves you've seen haha maybe five or ten parking spots down in Louisiana. Get my fuel. Once again times running down, its late im getting tired but going to run the clock dry. Scaling slips my mind im concerned about getting as far as i can. Drive a few more hours shut down for the night and next day get pre-pass red light for scale. Attendant says shut off truck bring necessary things in (the usual list, bol, license, registration etc logs.)

Im 2,000lbs overweight on rear axle.

Recieve a level 2 walk around as well and no dot sticker is on the right side of cab. They ask me to slide tandems and re scale. At this point tandems wonts slide. I even tried using a rock to stop them. Eventually they leave and another driver has a chock.

I slide my tandems make sure its okay to leave and go scale. With my tandems almost all the way back im still 40lbs overweight. With 200 miles left and no scales to destination i just go. My company says they will pay both violations but i have to pay them back.

Besides being angry with my self and the whole situation im anxious to how much this ticket will be. I got it in Missouri and im reading online like 13cents per pound over. Also this only goes on my csa correct and for how long?

CSA points stay on your and your company's record for 3 years. For a rule of thumb, scale any load over 35,000 pounds. Scale ASAP. Use Trucker Path or Cat scale app to find nearest scale and go.

I feel for ya Chris. I picked up a load in Winchester Va. last night. It weighed 45,911 according to the bills. Roehl has a system set up on their trailers for king pin distance A,B,C,D. It allows us to set the pins correctly depending on what state we run in. It also allows us to estimate weight distribution based on experience.

I’ve learned that Kraft is pretty decent on weight distribution and know where to set my pins. Anyhow, same deal running low in hours I headed south on I 81 in Virginia where the scale never closes. Got the prepass red light scaled...never looked into the mirror window (don’t let see your fear...lol) and got the green light...whew!!! Now I’m clear for the rest of the run.

Some day I’ll get bit. Just like you. Now, you need to turn the page and move on. I don’t think the CSA points will mean a lot on your license or the companies CSA performance. Don’t let it bother you too much.

When I drove for Central Transport I had a large target on my truck going up the I87 NORTHWAY I’m NY. I received several DOT inspections with several violations...and no one has blinked based on my CSA points. That being said...obviously, there ARE limits.

Good luck and stay safe!!

Hey Chris that's a real bummer. But thanks for fessing up and sharing it with us. There's a lesson for all of us here, and I'm sure you learned yours.

All you can do now is just move on. Yeah it sucks, but just get back to work and don't let it happen again.

I don't know what the fines will be in MO, but my friend got a 2000# over in either OR or WA. I can't remember what the exact amount was, but I think it was around 300.

For the company, your individual CSA points may not amount to much. But collectively with the other drivers, they can be huge, negatively affecting the company safety rating. This can lead to being red lighted more often, more inspections, etc.

Another tip here, and some may not agree with this, is to always keep an emergency stash of cash in the truck for these kind of situations. You never know when you're going to need a little money for a scale, a toll, something for the truck, or even for the Girl Scouts guilting you into buying their cookies in front of Walmart.

Yeah I agree with Turtle...(not like he needs my affirmation) but a stash of cash can never be a bad thing....My thought is 60 to 100 bucks.

Scale ticket - $10.00

Overweight ticket - likely 30x greater or more.

I'd even lower the weight to 32,000lbs determining if scaling the load is necessary; for two reasons load balance and checking how accurate BOL weight is.

Your company will reimburse the cost to scale a load. No reimbursement for an overweight fine.

Just a heads up, we have a member here who got points for not prooerly logging his fuel time. Due to CSA points, he was denied by Old Dominion which was where he really wanted to go for more home time.

So please guys, dont take the points lightly.

something to consider when scaling too is the fuel guage. if you are empty when you scale legal, fueling could put you overweight.

so if i scale a beer load that is 45k, and i scale legal at 3/4 of a tank i make darn sure i dont fill that tank the rest of the load. i only fuel to the 3/4 line .

i scale every load over 40k.

if you hapoen to go by a closed scale, some of them have the weight visible and you can use that

lesson here to be learned:: when your company stresses something to you like "scale before leaving" or "dont take that route" it is usually because other drivers have and had issues.

i probably would have dropped the trailer, bobtailed out to get cash and came back. Why? because some places then will either not rework the load or will.charge hundreds of dollars to rework cause you left with the trailer. by leaving, some of these companies claim you accepted the load and weights. it isnt their problem.anymore.

Overweight violations carry no points, it's the fine only and is considered a non moving violation.

MVR points and CSA points are different things...

Overweight violations carry no points, it's the fine only and is considered a non moving violation.

No MVR points either. I should have clarified that. At least on mine, it was only a fine. Oh look, poetry lol.