Truck Driving Jobs

Larry Heyns · Joined: 19 Oct 2005 Posts: 106 Location: Michigan

In the 1970s, Key Line operated strickly legal. I was dispatched to pick up a trailer loaded with miscelaneous at Hare Cartage in Detroit and haul it to Milwaukee. The manifest totaled only 36,000 lbs., so I assumed there was no need to check the axle weights. The scale master at Grass Lake told me that the trailer tandems were overweight. I slid the tandems to the rear, and they were still 2,000 lbs. overweight. So, the scale master began to copy the information from my license, registration, bill of lading, etc. onto a scratch pad. I asked him whether I was getting a ticket. He said, "Oh, no. We cannot write a ticket on this one." And he let me go. I know that he planned to use the info to get a steak dinner from our safety man.

I dodged the New Buffalo and Michigan City scales, and took the overloaded trailer to our Chicago terminal. We unloaded two gaylord boxes of castings off the tailgate, and looked for a bill of lading matching those boxes in the manilla envelope of bills from Hare Cartage. There was no bill of lading for those heavy gaylord boxes. I continued on my way to Milwaukee, and have no idea what the Chicago terminal manager did with those boxes.

mozzi · Joined: 07 Apr 2007 Posts: 4 Location: Central Illinois

Back in 90 or 91 (???) while pulling a flatbed I was dispatched to pick up a couple of partials. The first P/U was in Valley Ne. I deadheaded to Valley and loaded a bunch of concrete forms. My next P/U would be St. louis, Mo. All was to be delivered to some outfit N.E. of Atlanta, Ga. ASAP.

These conctete forms were not new but, used and as such were covered in concrete. I asked the man loading me "how much does this stuff weigh"? I was guaranteed that it could not exceed 30,000 # because I was only taking 1/3 of the entire load... and when the forms were new they had been shipped in on 1 truck.

I explained that I had a fairly good eye for estimating weight being loaded onto my rig and that I thought that this stuff weighed a lot more than the 30,000 # as claimed.

He finished loading my rig in the late afternoon, guaranteeing me that I was "WAY UNDER". I strapped down and headed for St. Louis, Mo. for the next P/U in the morning.

I had just hired on with this company a couple of weeks ago. After driving around Omaha on I-29 S. and merging with I-80 E. I decided to pull into the Sapp Bros. and put on fuel. While fueling, I ran into the owner of the company, (he still drove on occasion), who asked to buy me dinner. Well, being distracted by his presence, I forgot to scale out after fueling. It was late when he and I parted and I finally started out for Gateway.

The scales in Rock Port, Mo were closed and I was just easing along S. on I-29. I started to notice that the truck was really pulling hard in these mild, rolling hills. I actually had to downshift on one hill and I knew that something was "not as it was supposed to be".

I carefully made my way across Missouri to the Flying Hook just E. of Jonesburg, Mo. I camped out here. When I woke up I imediatly pulled around to the Hook scales and told the gal on the speaker that I refused to pay for anything if it wasn't legal... just joking with her 8)
She said that I'd better come in and check this out because, it sure wasn't legal. I still had another P/U to make in Gateway today. I weighed 90,000 #s.

I called dispatch and explained the problem... and of course... he said that I couldn't weigh that much BECAUSE I STILL HAD TO MAKE ANOTHER P/U. Duh ! why did'nt I think of that !!!

Anyway I went into St. Louis and, through a little coersion, convinced them to "REMOVE" a certian amount of weight to make me legal. Also, dispatch had given (suggested even) me permission to be as legal as I WANTED TOO :D :D :D The folks in Gateway didn't like it but, oh well. I rolled out of there around 65,000 # or so and delivered as scheduled in Georgia the following morning.

Truck Driving Jobs

Trucking Jobs

Truck Drivers

Trucking Companies

Class A Drivers.com