Held at ws til overweight ticket paid

[mtdewr]

Has anyone heard of VA holding a company responsible for overweight tickets? :shock: A driver was about 8000 lbs over gross on 8/29/07 and $620 ticket wasnt paid so they suspended the VA permits til payment was received (with a $30 reinstatement fee as well). DOT said we dont ticket the driver just companies....I guess that is one way to make sure it gets paid...LOL since they can pull any truck in and hold you hostage for payment. Do any other states do this????

[Fozzy]

4 tons overweight? I would say that they had the right to do all sorts of things to someone that heavy...

[Uturn2001]

I know for a fact that MO will "impound" your trailer until bond is posted on an overweight citation. Bond also happens to be the exact amount of the fine.

I do not know how it works at other scales in the state, but at the Joplin scales you have to drop your trailer and go to the county sheriffs office to post bond. If I recall correctly it pretty much has to be cash or money orders they will not accept checks of any kind.

And of course you have to be legal before you can hook back up and leave.

[mtdewr]

I didnt have the overweight ticket.....another driver did...they just made me wait til payment was received. Is this the norm?

Thanks for the resonses Fozzy and Uturn!!

[DD60]

I know for a fact that MO will "impound" your trailer until bond is posted on an overweight citation. Bond also happens to be the exact amount of the fine.

I do not know how it works at other scales in the state, but at the Joplin scales you have to drop your trailer and go to the county sheriffs office to post bond. If I recall correctly it pretty much has to be cash or money orders they will not accept checks of any kind.

And of course you have to be legal before you can hook back up and leave.

That story about having to bobtail to the courthouse is mostly B.S. when it comes to the Joplin scales. Just like any traffic ticket if an overweight ticket is unpaid the driver's license will be suspended or denied. Overweight tickets are issued to the driver,not the company. IF you scale the load and it is overweight AND you have proof the company told you to run it anyway than there may be some legal recourse. I have been cited once at the Joplin scales for being 3k overgross and the fine was 250.00. I was able to put the rest of the load on another truck and get released from the scale when my weight got down to the legal limit. Oh,and I had 30 DAYS to mail the payment or pay by phone with a credit card. I wasn't forced to drop my trailer and bobtail to a courthouse.

[Uturn2001]

Well think what you will DD60, but that is EXACTLY what I had to do when I was nailed there for being overweight on my drives. This was about 8 years ago, so maybe things have changed, but I assure everyone that is what I had to do.

I was under on my gross, but due to my load sliding I was over on the drives by about 4,000 when I crossed that scale.

[Part Time Dweller]

In IL you don't leave the scale till the $$ is in their hands, and truck made legal.

[inmate1577]

IMHO its rare that a driver isnt aware that he's overweight. I've had shippers tell me the same old story when being overweight on the axles...
"Other drivers do it" Well other people shoot themselves in the foot too, but I dont do what "other drivers do". I scale it til its right. If its overweight, it gets unloaded, or I sit at the loading dock til the issue is resolved.

[Mr. Ford95]

Doesn't surprise me with VA. They write the ticket against the company but it's in the name of the driver. Meaning that if the company doesn't pay, they suspend YOUR CDL.

Mtdewr, it's possible that the company has had several other large overweight fines that were due so VA was looking to shut their trucks down until the fines were paid. Remember, they are DOT, they can do as they please........

[Fredog]

Has anyone heard of VA holding a company responsible for overweight tickets? :shock: A driver was about 8000 lbs over gross on 8/29/07 and $620 ticket wasnt paid so they suspended the VA permits til payment was received (with a $30 reinstatement fee as well). DOT said we dont ticket the driver just companies....I guess that is one way to make sure it gets paid...LOL since they can pull any truck in and hold you hostage for payment. Do any other states do this????

In Georgia the ticket is written against the company, we get them all the time in our dump wagons. it may vary by state..

[kc0iv]

Well think what you will DD60, but that is EXACTLY what I had to do when I was nailed there for being overweight on my drives. This was about 8 years ago, so maybe things have changed, but I assure everyone that is what I had to do.

I was under on my gross, but due to my load sliding I was over on the drives by about 4,000 when I crossed that scale.

Having been through the Joplin scales hundreds of time I can attest to what Uturn2001 said. At least having to bob-tail to the court house. Been there -- done that. And still couldn't leave the scales till the weight was correct.

The Joplin scales had some real problems in the past. Thankfully most of those problems have been corrected.

kc0iv

[Uturn2001]

In IL you don't leave the scale till the $$ is in their hands, and truck made legal.

Come to think of if I remember that now. Back when I was in CDL school and doing our night drives they took us down to the Brownstown scale so we would at least have a small clue on how to cross the scales (each of us drove across twice). While we waited for the other students to do the deal we got the official nickle tour and got to see someone pulled around and fined.

[mtdewr]

Thank you everyone for the responses!!! I had never heard of this...I thought if you were overweight ( which I have NEVER done ) they would park you til you were legal. After 1 1/2 years, I am still learning new things everyday!!!

Be safe out there!!

[ben45750]

I have had several over weight tickets in Ohio, I think it's 7? The tickets were always issued to me but the company has to pay with a COMDATA check before you can leave and the weight issue has to be corrected also (non-moving violation so they don't go on your record). I have had 2 equipment violations (broken springs 2 separate times), tickets were issued to me and they are on my record and the fine is paid to the county just as if you got a speeding ticket.

ps. All the above violations came from when I was driving for Roadway.

[ben45750]

Nope it's 6 ..... had to check in my old logs when I was with Roadway.

[Colin]

I was cited at the POE in Minnesota back on the Tuesday after Memorial Day in 2003. I could not leave until I paid the overweight fine.

Bit of a shock I made it from Georgetown, SC to the POE without a single scale being open, but oh well.

JB Hunt said that was part of a trend of being unsafe. I was due for a major wreck because of this and lane change complaints. :P

[driver62]

In IL you don't leave the scale till the $$ is in their hands, and truck made legal.

Same in Ohio unless they changed it in the last 5 years. I speak from experience. :sad: