I haul azz from Eau Claire, WI yesterday, and get to Ottawa, KS, drop off the load, and get to the terminal before my 14 were up. I wait till 10a for a load at a rail yard to get me home (this time, NE iowa). I pick up the intermodal trailer, and i can tell this mofo is pulling like 100 dead elephants. I planned to scale it at the QT at exit 13. I get there, scale it, and turns out i'm 520 lbs over gross. My steers and tandems are fine, my drives are 35,000 and change. So after thinking about taking a chance on whether 3 scales between here and NE iowa would be open, i sent a message saying i was over gross. In the meantime, i was looking for routes around scales (yeah....big ticket if i get caught dodging scales....so i'm told) but i was really looking to get home tonight.

So anyway, i'm told they are looking for a day-cab to take the load off me (something tells me with an intermodal trailer loaded just over 42k, a daycab should have been the ONLY type of truck to pull this) or they'll t-call the load back at the rail yard, and transload it. Either way, i'm not getting to NE iowa today....or maybe even tomorrow for that matter. And i'd be lucky to get something sunday out of KC.

thats what i get for being a good little driver.

 

Yeah, but let's factor in the what if's? What if you did get stopped, what if they found something with your truck, trailer, logs, etc while running you over with a fine tooth comb due to your 500 and some odd pounds over, then where would you be, not only late to hometime, but possibly with a hefty fine, in my opinion you made a good choice doing what you did, you just never know what could have happened. You get a pat on the back for a job well done, whether you made it to Iowa or not.

 

That's what you get for p!zzing off weekend dispatch last week.:lol::rofl:

 

this had nothing to do with that. Trust me. The destination for this load was the city i call home. It was a load to get me home, not a load to screw with me.

BUT.......it gets a little better.........

I last bugged them about an update about 5p. I asked again just before 7p. It was obvious that one shift didnt bother talking to another, or atleast left out key information. I then get a 'planned t-call' notice on my QC regarding this load. I sent a message saying I wanted authorization to move the load to our terminal in Edwardsville, KS, or authorization to drop it there IN MESSAGE FORM because i knew they would not accept an illegal scale ticket. The next message i get says, "have you tried to scale the load???"

I said, "that is what this whole screw up is about. i'm over gross by 520 lbs." Said how my weekend DM was 'working' with the CSR and/or trying to locate a daycab to repower the load. Obviously this task never got completed. But anyway, I had said i wanted clear authority from somewhere to allow me to T-call the load....i did not want to drive all the way there, only for them to refuse to let me in the gate. And if i couldn't get authorization, then i'd sit at the t/s. I got a message back saying "that's on you".

I called the terminal, only for the call to get forwarded to memphis. I got some guy on the phone and i told him i wanted it documented in my truck load info saying it was okay to t-call with an illegal scale ticket. He said he couldn't do that. I then said, "ok...if i get there, and they refuse to let me in the gate, i'll drop the trailer right there...because i shouldn't even be on public roads."

So i sent a message back saying they had let me on the yard, thanked them for good experience. because the next time i got a rail load, and it was over 40k on a container, and it had no scale ticket in the bill box, i wasn't going to get handcuffed like i just was.

 

500lbs wouldn't keep me from getting home. It depends on your fuel level. 65 gallons burned would have put you almost legal, or very close. I've ran 700 over gross coast to coast and never had a problem. Prepass helps though

 

Good Point Bandit,

Ah, but since Kevin is such an awesome driver I am sure he already knew that....

And will have a great reason as to why he did not want to attempt this feat.
Another reason as to why I am so thankful I pull local...
Thant kind of BS would drive me nuts...

Timberwolf

 

I'll second that.

.

 

a great reason? well how about getting that hefty fine? Not to mention 520lbs translates to just over 74 gallons of fuel. if i got 6mpg, it would take me 444 mi + to burn that off to be 'legal'. But I wasnt going 444mi home, it was only a 320 mi run. And prepass would have been another "what if" as mentioned before by millersod. Yeah i got it, but 'what if' the scale is open, i roll across the 'pre-scale pad' and it trips off that i'm over gross? I actually went by a scale in MN the other day. Sign said "prepass site, trucks obey in-cab signal". I get the beep to bypass, but i get up closer, and the electric sign told me to 'exit to scales'. WTF?? So i exit to scale, only to take the bypass lane like everyone else.

prepass is only good if whoever is in the chicken house wants to accept it or not. every truck could have it, but if they happen to be in a bad mood and want to see if every truck has a up to date fuel registration sticker, then thats what they'll do.

next time i'm over gross, ill roll with the load, then when i get the ticket, i'll be sure to forward it on to bandit and timber so they can split the cost.

When i asked how this load got to the railhead in CA from the shipper without a scale ticket, i was told "it wasnt a swift truck that dropped off the load...."

 

For a CHANGE - you actually did THE RIGHT THING (GOD do I regret saying that). It's fairly obvious that dispatch (especially off-shift) hasn't got a clue most of the time - but YOU ALREADY KNOW THIS.

Whining about it doesn't CHANGE THINGS.

But that's OK - we're all SO GLAD to be your THERAPY GROUP here. You keep blowing off steam - WE'LL KEEP LAUGHING. :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:

Rick

 

BC...it isn't the 520 pounds that would have had Kevin hung. It was the 1,000 pounds over on his drive axles that would have had him hung. 520 pounds you burn fuel and pay the $13 ticket. 1,000 pounds you break seals and crawl around inside that container, re-arranging weight, before you leave the first scale, with a hefty fine and such.



And Iowa is working their scales harder, because the farms are harvesting and the out of state beef ranches are shipping.