did you have your chain tool, lol. and your master lease. Never got pulled over by them but I've heard horor stories about them, right down to things like a 500 dollor fine for not haveing that chian tightning toll and pulling out an atlas, calculator and ruler to figure out exactly how far you could legaly go in x number of hours.

 

Manchester, TN

 

There was a problem in the Joplin, Mo scale-house. It got so bad at least 3 were allowed to resign a couple of years ago.

As far as medical cards. I've never heard of them being on file in the state of MO and I'm licensed in MO. Only thing I've seen and heard is some will not accept the card. They want the long form.

Reading



As you can see ONLY three copies are created by the medical examiner (1) Their copy. (2) Your copy. and (3) The motor carrier.

So I think this must of been one of the scams going on by the scale-house employee(s).

kc0iv

 

I could write a book on scalehouse fun-n-games I've had the misfortune of experiencing...but I won't. I'll just mention a few scales that others can probably relate to that have had their own run-ins with and wish they had a handful of gernades on them like I wish I would've had back then.....West Memphis....Hope, Ark.....Truckee....and practically every scalehouse I ever crossed in Virginia called me in and found something to hassle me about and delay me for long periods of time no matter how miniscule including the time they shut me down because I was missing a valve stem on a trailer tire believe it or not. Pure rinky-dinky bs but true story.

If you're on the road long enough you'll eventually experience some of the shenanigans that the hooligans in the chicken houses get a thrill out of intimidating you with a power trip just for something to do IMO.

The logbook is the biggest farce in the industry that those coops use to try to put the scare in you. "DRIVER...PULL AROUND BACK AND BRING IN YOUR LOGBOOK AND PAPERWORK" is a frequent scare tactic to intimidate you. You've been driving all night in the rain staring at high-beam headlights and those losers who have the out-of-adjustment freakin fog lights, or road lights and you walk into the scalehouse with your eyes looking like 2 pee holes in the snow and your tired and hungry and don't want any hassle. You just want to get where you gotta go and hit the sack. Screw the logbook ya know. They know the paperwork is a hassle for drivers and 9 out of 10 times the book isn't up to date when they call you in anyhow so it's just a revenue stream for them and leverage to hassle you.

Don't even get me started...

 

Yeah, wassup w/Oregon??- hubby had problems w/them too!

 

Truckee scales on 80 a few years ago. I get pulled around for an inspection and get put out of service for a LITTLE hiss in the airline. There were no air leaks. I just replace the airline with a spare. Problem solved and another problem pops up. The DOT woman has measured my trailer axle and told me I am overlength by ONE hole. I moved it one whole forward and ended up being overweight by 300lbs on the rear. I had a load of drums on. The clowns made me break the seal and take off that one single drum. :lol: I had to put the drum on another truck. Luckily it was light enough for 2 other drivers to help me move it. My second encounter was at the eastbound Joplin scales. The scale master said that I was 2k overgross AND 2500 over on the trailer. I told him that wasn't possible and if he would let me reweigh. He said sure I can. Unfortunately it showed no difference. Again I had to move 2000lbs on another truck before I could leave the scale. And I got a overaxle ticket on that one,but no overgross ticket. BTW,I had 30 days to mail or pay the ticket by phone. They didn't make me bobtail to the court to pay it on the same day,LOL. :lol: The ticket was 240.00.

 

We will have to agree to disagree, many years as a company owner, a few audits, having a Texas DOT officer call Ca Dmv to see if my medical certificate was valid, and the fact that after the physical the driver has to walk the long form in and submit it to the Dmv. We will have to just disagree.

 

There is a scale about 45 miles west of our town. I was taking two students on a hwy run and on the way back to town the scale was open.

I got out of the truck and asked the student who was driving to cross the scale. I told him to watch the lights and just do as directed. He gets to the steering axle and the guy stops him and weights him, then he gets to the drivers and stops him again. He gives him the next Axel light and stops him with both of the boggies on the trailer on the scale.

We are about 3.000 lbs light on both our drivers and our boggies so I am not worried about the weights and most days we have two to four full pretrips on all of our equipment. Not only that, but on the way back we had stopped on the top of the hill to do a full brake check. At those checks we make the students get out and pull all the slacks as part of the check before they head down the hill. So in effect, the slacks had been checked less than 60 miles ago.

While the student has the trailer boggies on the scale the scale guy comes out. He asks the student to take his foot off the brake peddle and then asks him to do a full brake application.

He looks over to me and says that the brakes are out of adjustment. Now, I know that they are not and are only stoking about 1.5 inches.

I said to him "What?". He repeats himself a little bit louder.

So then I said, "How can you possible tell that, without measuring them?"

At this point, the truck still has not moved, and the trucks are starting to back up to get on the scale as he still has the report to sign on.

He said that he has been doing this for long enough to know when a brake is out adjustment and did not need to measure them.

I asked him how many where out of adjustment. And he says "All four on the trailer."

I once again asked him "Are you sure?".

Now he is getting pretty loud and yells back something like "Yes I am, now get the truck off the scale, move it into the parking lot and adjust the brakes!!"

I walked up to the tractor and told the student to apply the brakes, shut down the tractor and stay in the cab.

I walked back to the scale guy and now he is yelling at me. "Why did you do that, you have to move the truck off the scale!!!"

I said to him "I cannot move the unit, as you are saying I have four brakes out of adjustment, it is an out of service infraction as 50% or more of our brakes are out on the same unit I cannot move until you get under my truck and certify that they are correct."

At this point, the trucks are no longer just plugging up the parking lot, but they are now starting to plug up both the North and South bound lanes on the hwy, which is just a two lane road.

Now he starts to really wig out and is yelling at me to move.

I repeated that I cannot move until her checks it out and if I do and if I am in an accident, it will be his fault for making me move in a vehicle that does not meet federal requirements.

Once more I told him to get under my truck and do a full brake application test so I can move it.

Now the trucks are starting to beep their horns and some of the drivers are coming over to see what the hell is going on. I am not sure at this point if they are coming over to beat the crap out of him or me.

He is now going ballistic and running around screaming for me to move.

I sat down on a bench that is right there and said nothing.

Finally, he runs into the scale shack, puts on the Green sign, turns off the report to scale sign, locks up his shack and jumps in his car and leaves.

The other drives where almost rolling on the ground laughing.

This guy had a reputation for being an idiot and about a month later he was transferred to the north somewhere.

It was not because of what I did, but it was the straw.

Even the guys he worked with thanked me for helping to get rid of him.

Now, I would not suggest you do that, unless you are absolutely sure your stuff is ok and your paper work is in order.

It might have been the most fun I ever had in a truck and my students could not believe that I would do something like that.

Regardless to say, I have never been bothered in a scale in our area by a scale master since.

 

guess i'm doin something right or very lucky. (of course, i was born on the 13th :lol: unlucky to some, not me!) :wink: been driving since 1997, never had a single problem with any DOT. wish i had some good trucker story to tell ya, but no dice. :P

 

Never had a problem with the DOT have a couple good stories about them one involves the Trukee scales. I was westbound with a Century class with 19.5 tires and full fairings on the chassis needless to say low to the ground. The DOT officer was like here is the deal show me an easy way to get under trucks like this since my company had then along with SWIFT and a few others and I will just pass you on the INSPECTION. I was in for a Level 1 by the way I showed him the way to removed the fairing by the drives he did not even climb under the truck just told me put the fairning back on and put the sticker on my windsheild and said have a nice day.

The other time involves my dad and I running team we had a Cracked D/S windshield and I mean CRACKED try about 18 inches long. Dad was driving and we get pulled into the scale on 101 north of LA I can't remember where right now he started talking about grandkids to the DOT officer right about the time he was supposed to check the windshields next thing we know we got the CVSA sticker.