Biggest overweight fine yet!!!

[rushfan]

So I get my trailers from my meet driver..He tells me they feel "a bit heavy" I went thru the scales, and immediately am told to park. Turns out the set was 13,000 pounds over the state's weight limit. $1400 fine and a misdemeanor charge. Two trailers were over 40,000# each. So aside from the big charge for the whole set, there were citations written for every overweight trailer. I had no clue, since the trailers are not weighed. Needless to say, I did get paid 1.5 hours of overtime waiting for the officer to write down all the charges-which I thoroughly enjoyed feeling my wallet get heavier as the minutes clicked by.

The trailers got to me because the previous drivers all use tandem axles.

A great day's pay!

 

[trickpony1]

At what point are you gonna start worrying about these overweight tickets appearing and accumulating on your CDL?

 

[Anonymous 10]

Logistics

 

[badpal]

Surely back at the hub brilliant minds are figuring out how to blame it on you. lol

 

[want to retire]

At what point are you gonna start worrying about these overweight tickets appearing and accumulating on your CDL?

I agree. Those offenses are cumulative(if I understand correctly). The days of just passing the fine to your feeder mgr. are over.

 

[anonymous6]

i don't think the driver was cited? we carry a co responsibility paper in our cabs for equipment violations. i'll have to check for overweight.

 

[Dracula]

All of our exits should have scales. In Salina Kansas, they have scales that are used for any loads that head towards Colorado, because those drivers are required to know their weights, if I'm not mistaken. Having an excuse apparently doesn't mean much to the Colorado DOT.

 

[Harry Manback]

I've always been curious how feeders dealt with weigh stations. How could our drivers be held personally responsible for weight violations, when we don't even have scales on the vast majority of our yards? Big Mama farts more money away in a half hour of operation costs than it pays in fines for weight violations. Are our feeder brothers and sisters held accountable in situations like this?

 

[OptimusPrime]

I've always been curious how feeders dealt with weigh stations. How could our drivers be held personally responsible for weight violations, when we don't even have scales on the vast majority of our yards? Big Mama farts more money away in a half hour of operation costs than it pays in fines for weight violations. Are our feeder brothers and sisters held accountable in situations like this?

This. We don't have them here. And if you thought a load was overweight, you would be breaking the law just driving it to a weigh station I would assume. This sounds like business as usual to me. Like some of the horrific damage accounts we have. Seen signs around the building "Company X $150,000 for the month". That's just one center. It obviously doesn't bother their pocket book, just the cost of doing business.

 

[anonymous6]

I've always been curious how feeders dealt with weigh stations. How could our drivers be held personally responsible for weight violations, when we don't even have scales on the vast majority of our yards? Big Mama farts more money away in a half hour of operation costs than it pays in fines for weight violations. Are our feeder brothers and sisters held accountable in situations like this?

no. overweights are extremely unusual. in 25 years have only seen one. anything involved with equipment is company responsiblity. driver is responsible for logbook and obeying actual operating of vehicle in a lawful manner.

if the highway patrol can prove that the driver had prior knowledge of an equipment violation, the driver would also be liable.

i may not be exactly correct on this. this is what i have been told by management and senior drivers.

 

[raceanoncr]

Couple questions here. You said each trailer was 40,000? Times 2, that's 80,000, right? Pluse you tractor/dolly, that's over 80,000, right? What's your states max? Or what was your meet drivers max license on the cab card? If they also are licensed, that is, on the registration, for 80, then it makes no difference if they have tandem axle or not. Max is max, no matter how many wheels you got.

Now, of course, in diff parts of this state, we have loads going to other states or areas where there are lighter (no pun intended) weight restrictions, hence some of our tractors are licensed for, say 80 in this state but when we cross state line, then we are licensed for higher limit. Is this the case here? Just asking.

AND you said you got misdeanor charge? That's a charge, right? Court charge with fine, right?

In the state I live in, overweights, do, indeed, go on our license. That's why, when I got dinged 3 times in 3 weeks, even tho I was collecting delay time waiting for MTs to arrive or other drivers to arrive and switch I was still gettting dinged by my state. Oh, yeah, it dropped off after awhile but how many misdemeanors can one have? I don't know?

AND, another thing that was starting to REALLY annoy us was the company wasn't paying the fines in a timely manner. We had one driver, my former sleeper partner, that was held at the scale in a diff state because previous fines weren't paid yet. They were gonna throw him in jail.

Just a couple qestions is all. Enlighten me.

 

[outta hours]

Here is a link to all the states and weight limits per axle.
Weight Size Limits for Trucks

Bigger issue is one of safety and liability. The arrogance & continued practice of the company saying " just fine us we will pay it". Would not look good in any litigation that arose from any type of incident or accident involving an over the limit vehicle. I am sure that somehow that would get twisted back around to the driver being ultimately responsible. With the company trying to absolve themselves from any liability.

 

[Anonymous 10]

I can't believe that some of these fat feeder drivers haven't broken more scales.

 

[BigUnionGuy]

They don't call it "the feeder 50" for nothing.

 

[Anonymous 10]

They don't call it "the feeder 50" for nothing.

Yea cause those boys sure can get fat.

 

[outta hours]

They don't call it "the feeder 50" for nothing.

Lately I have seen a lot more fat pkg. car drivers than feeder. At least most feeder guys are 40+ years old. But it is a personal choice. I choose not to be a fat feeder driver so I'm not.

 

[OptimusPrime]

Yea cause those boys sure can get fat.

My car was in the shop, so my father was dropping me off at the hub one day. Couple of drivers were walking out. My father had this shocked look on his face. "How do those guys deliver packages all day!?" "Those are feeder drivers" was my reply.

 

[want to retire]

What hasn't been discussed here much is what happens in an accident? Say, runover a van full of kids or such. Or be involved in that 150 vehicle pileup in Houston....fatalities. I guarantee.......if found illegal by NTSB and you cause an accident/fatality......You'll wish you never heard of UPS.

 

[rushfan]

I understand the overweights will start to accumulate, even though we are not at fault. It's something the company and union need to get straight. Yes, both trailers were 40,000#. The gross weight limit here is 105,000#. Mine was over 125,000#! Yes, there were court costs involved. I was on our admin assistant like flies on **** to get it paid. The assistant said he got into an arguement with a lady in Atlanta over the fine. She said she sent him the check to pay the court-when in fact she only sent the $87.00 for the overweight trailers-not the $1400 for the set being overweight. So were it not paid by tomorrow, there would be a warrant out for my arrest. We have had a feeder driver get arrested due to non-payment of overweight fines.
The officer at the scales told me the overweights will be on the "CDL record" not personal record. The problem arises if there are continually overweight trailers. The shop steward told me they are easily explainable, but I'm still doing my own research. I've learned at UPS not to listen to anyone regarding overweights etc. One has to do the research themselves.
My point is CYA!
No I didn't gain 50 in feeder, only 10-cholesterol is under 100, same with blood sugars. No knee or disc replacement surgeries here. And yes, when I retire, I will still be able to walk upright-unlike many of my package bretheren and sisters.

 

[raceanoncr]

I understand the overweights will start to accumulate, even though we are not at fault. It's something the company and union need to get straight. Yes, both trailers were 40,000#. The gross weight limit here is 105,000#. Mine was over 125,000#! Yes, there were court costs involved. I was on our admin assistant like flies on **** to get it paid. The assistant said he got into an arguement with a lady in Atlanta over the fine. She said she sent him the check to pay the court-when in fact she only sent the $87.00 for the overweight trailers-not the $1400 for the set being overweight. So were it not paid by tomorrow, there would be a warrant out for my arrest. We have had a feeder driver get arrested due to non-payment of overweight fines.
The officer at the scales told me the overweights will be on the "CDL record" not personal record. The problem arises if there are continually overweight trailers. The shop steward told me they are easily explainable, but I'm still doing my own research. I've learned at UPS not to listen to anyone regarding overweights etc. One has to do the research themselves.
My point is CYA!
No I didn't gain 50 in feeder, only 10-cholesterol is under 100, same with blood sugars. No knee or disc replacement surgeries here. And yes, when I retire, I will still be able to walk upright-unlike many of my package bretheren and sisters.

OK, gotcha. I see.

Yeah, so when they want to give you a screw, you STILL wouldn't be legal, huh? They tried to do that to me too. The three states I was going thru at the time were all 80,000. When I got stopped at the last scale (the previous were all closed at the time), I was, if I remember, about 83, with over 20 on the drive. At home, the mangler said they were going to give me a tandem axle. Me: "Well, that's going to help on the drive but how's it going to help on the gross?". Him: "Uh.....".

I started making copies of my tickets because the all seemed to conveniently "vaporize into hyberspace". With notes on when and where they were turned in and with names attached. That, also, seemed to garner quite a bit of attention.

On your shop steward saying "They are easily explainable", I just relate the story of a friend of mine that works for UPSF. Got overweights, went to renew license, they said he had to jump thru all these hoops, including retaking test. Could NOT easily explain away. HAD to do what they said...PERIOD.