Scaling A Load

I've never had to deal with weighing and sliding tandems before this job. What determines if you decide you're going to weigh or not? I plan on scaling any loads over 30k until I get a better idea of how my trailers loaded just curious if you guys scale every load or if you wait until your B.O.L. says a certain weight, which we all know shippers are ALWAYS right (sarcasm). Our Volvo tractors also have that PSI gauge to help get an idea of weight on drives. Wasnt concerned about my 20k to cedar Rapids today but tomorrows load is just under 35k and going to Minneapolis so not taking any chances of hitting an open scale overweight.

Learn where 33,500 is on the guage. This also depends on fuel load. Get it at or under that. Try to keep your drives heavy so the ride will be better. If you have any doubt, scale the load.

This also depends on fuel load.

all tractors are fueled by an outside company night so atleast a full tank will be consistent. Downside is we have a VERY mixed fleet. Being new I don't have an assigned truck. In 6 days I've been in Volvo, international, freightliner and today was a kenworth.

Ask some of the experienced drivers where and what on the air bag pressure guage. The few freightliners I've been in it's been easy. Those read what the load is, 33 is 33,000 lbs.

My 2013 day cab shows a drive pressure of 57 psi for roughly 76k. 60 psi gets me around 78-79k. Obviously a different setup then you have but it gives you an idea. I know old school had a volvo. Maybe he will share what his reads.

Rob...I scale any grocery load that’s 30k. Reason? Balance. You might have 4 pallets of paper towels on the nose, and 4 water pallets on the tail. Wild weight swings...from a 2200 pound pallet of water to a 400 pound pallet of paper towels, and everything in-between.

I also look at my bills so I can see pallet weights and where they are placed in the trailer.

With the way most loads are I wouldn't be too concerned however this load is 1 store taking 27k of product then a delivery to a warehouse dropping off a few pallets total weight 8k. We only deliver perishables, primarily meat and dairy products. Each stop is loaded the same way, meat towards front, dairy towards tail with each stop being seperate. Not sure what the extra drop product is. Loads are pretty balanced and both trainers I had told me as long as my tandems 7 holes back very rarely will there be an issue. I'll just play it safe though and scale it tomorrow morning. I'll take the few minutes and spend the companys money to save myself a much bigger fine should I get busted overweight. Off to bed, gotta be up in 5 hours. Thanks guys

Okay got it. My perishable; freezer, dairy , deli loads are more consistent weight from pallet to pallet. Mixed dry...? Different story.

I know old school had a volvo. Maybe he will share what his reads.

I've never had those fancy air guages. Sorry!

I had a load with my first mentor that we couldn't slide the tandoms. They were frozen and would not move. He told me to take this certain route around the scales. I will never do that again. I was scared for a half hour after getting back on the I -15. I'm not going to risk my license because he didn't want to have the load redistributed. We were 2200 over our 80,000 limit.

But I don't know what the best way of figuring it out, but there has to be a good rule of thumb.