Question:
On Thursday, I loaded empty wine barrels, cut in half to be planters. They were stacked on pallets. I got 24 pallets. When I signed my bills, I noticed there was no weight listed. Not a big deal, in itself, but for the sake of knowlege, I asked him what the load weighed. He referred to his paperwork and SHOWED me 900 lbs per pallet of 27 drums. 900 x 24= 21600 lbs. Piece of cake. I double checked it on my POS onboard, electronic scale and the trailer showed 29000 lbs. I'm legal.
Next day, I get pulled into the CA scales just north of Red Bluff and get my first DOT inspection in 0ver 5 years. Everything passed, I got my stickers and then the inspector gave my drivers license to a CHP officer. NOT a good sign. He walks over and informs me I'm overweight on my trailer by 820 lbs. HUH????
Lets see, if my trailer weighs around 11000 lbs on the tandems empty and I put the entire 21600 lbs over them, I would still only be 32600 lbs. He must be wrong. Then he gave me the scale ticket. I weighed 75300 lbs gross weight. Since I was already in the 40' CA hole, moving the load was out of the question. I went outside and checked the weight with my handy on board scale and I weighed 34600 lbs OOPS I'm in deep doo doo. After a 2 hr wait, the rollback finally arrived and took a pallet of barrels off the truck. The broker paid for that, at least. When my company called the shipper back, they stood by the stated weight of 900 lbs per pallet.
Now I get to wait a week or 2 to see how bad the ticket is. The company is trying to get the shipper to pay, since they were wrong. I incidentally got a weight just before unloading and then got an empty weight and the load weighed just over 43000 lbs. They'll get a copy of it at the shipper, too.
The company said if the shipper and the broker both refuse to pay it, we won't haul any loads for them again. They do have a problem with a customer that lies.

Answer:
Never have trusted a shipper.
One time not too long ago, I loaded out of the LA area. I knew that it would be close to axle on the tandems, so I told them, "I'll be back after I run across a scale."
Shipping manager says, "Aw, you'll be just fine. No need to worry."
Needless to say, I went back 3 times. Hotter than hell out that day and the loading crew was in and out of that trailer more than they wanted to be, pitching boxes forward.
$8.00 scale fee is a hell of a lot cheaper than a over-weight ticket (and associated costs), anyday!
If in doubt, scale it out!
Sucks that ya got a ticket MM.

Answer:
Well, one good thing came out of all this. No, make that two. First, one of the guys on the towtruck said his wife was mad at him because he wouldn't pay $35 for a wine barrel just the day before. Now he has 27 of them. Bet he's a hero, now. Can you say garage sale????
The second good thing that happened is they FINALLY believe my onboard scale is messed up. They've been outside 3 times since I put it on my truck and it always worked perfect. Also, two of my friends specifically recall the comment: " If you get a ticket, we'll pay for it" They, along with the wife, and she will NEVER let them forget the comment.
When I go in next week, I get a new box and a new sensor for my tractor.

Answer:
I dont trust the shipper or another driver if he is the one who loaded the load and even shows me his scale ticket.
Been too many times I have swapped loads with another driver who says he scaled the load and even shows or leaves a copy of the scale ticket only to find a major discrepency when I go to scale it.
When it comes to protecting your pocket book and your CDL trust no one.
Answer:
The State of California has decided I owe them $ 88.00. I told the company and they said the ticket will be paid by them and the shipper has apologized for the misunderstanding and will re-imburse the company. I also have been informed that California does NOT consider overweight violations to be a moving offense, so no points will be assessed.

Answer:
Magic, good. Deal. I wish we knew what part the broker played in covering their carrer and shipper. I bet there is a little litigation going on there. No carrier or Broker wants a lieing deal.
Let use know what you find out.202 N Main Street
Summerfield Il 62289
TRUCK PARKING AVAILABLE!

Answer:
Hey, I don't mean to pick on you, but can't you feel the difference between 21,000 pounds and 43,000 pounds? Was the trip all on flat ground with no standing starts? 600 horses under the hood?

Answer:

As a matter of fact, I was rather perplexed by that myself. I had just done a bunch of work on the truck, new air to air, overhead, turbo 3000 and it was the first trip out. I went to California with 10,000 lbs in the wagon, so this was the first "Heavy" load after the work. I was mostly on flat ground and in heavy traffic, so I didn't realize I was that heavy. The truck pulled like it always did with a fairly light load. Add to that, the miserable onboard scale lying to me and there's the problem. Since then, the scale has been replaced and is working great and I've discovered my poor tired Detroit with over 700,000 miles still wants to pull like a big truck, with all the repairs and additions made to it.
Incidentally, I do feel the Turbo 3000 is doing a good job for me. My idle has smoothed out, my power curve seems to be better and my fuel mileage is up. Now, I am not foolish enough to think the Turbo 3000 did all that, but it sure helped. I can recall going up Sherman Pass eastbound and dropping to 25 mph, with 44,000 lbs in the box, and that was before the air to air went bad and it needed an overhead. Now, I go over at 40+ mph with the same weight. Somethings working.

Answer:
I had the same type thing a while back in Bowling Green KY. They loaded a load of kiln dried hickory lumber on my curtainside, and claimed it was only about 40,000 lbs. I looked at the load stacked to the roof all the way back, and told them it looked more like 54000 lbs. Guy on the forklift got real snotty, and said"" I;ve been loading these loads for 25 yrs. I KNOW what I'm doing." Took the load to the T/S, and grossed 83000. HUH????
Took the ticket back and told him he could get more practice loading trucks by taking off 2 bundles of lumber.'
Roehl got a big rate increase the 1st of the yr., and ever since all the shippers are trying to pile more on the trucks. When it comes to lumber,shingles or bricks, I trust noone except CAT scale co.
On Good Friday morn., I was in Latrobe PA loading kiln dried cherry lumber.
The loading form did'nt have the weight on it so I asked for the board feet. The loader said I was getting 41500#. I still wanted the board footage, and he showed me the slip for 15980 board feet of lumber. Hmmmm...that just does'nt compute to 41500# no matter how you slice it, with cherry lumber weighing in at nearly 4#/board foot. Gotta watch everybody nowadays.Just remember:If the world did'nt suck, you'd fall off!
The more I see and read about Republicans and Democrats, the more I wish we had an Independent Party.
IMPEACH BUSH!!!!!!!!!!

Answer:
Don't you just love it when you hear that line..."I've been doing this for xxx years.."
Any time I hear this and then have to go back I will ask the guy if he has been wrong all these years or is today an exception.
Answer:
I like it when the shipper was a truck driver before. I was up in New York picking up rock granules in sacks of fifty pounds each. I sat there for about three hours and I would have been mad, but that shipper sat there weighing and reweighing every pallet and he wrote down each weight on a piece of paper trying to figure out how to load my trailer accurately. When he finally finished loading me, he told me where the nearest scale was, and to call him if it didn't weigh out, so he could reload me, and he would stay late for me.
I had 33,680 on each tandem!
And another hint the man gave me, move your tandems forward, before loading, and on a 53 foot trailer, if your load is 4 feet from the back of the trailer, you will be able to move the weight around easier, by moving tandems.