So. UPS DOES have scales!!!

[raceanoncr]

Just turned to the Jan/2011 issue of Street Rodder magazine (ok, I know it's been out a while but I don't get to my, uh, "library" to peruse it all at once) and saw, on page 80, referring to this years NSRA Nationals Plus in Louisville, a picture showing a drive-on scale, pop-up tent w/UPS logos and sign showing, "Scale Your Car".

Now, I find this, uh, ironic? Well, more like, humorous.

Oh, I know this was a PR stunt, beings Worldport is right there but funny just the same.

All around the country, well, here, anyway, feeders are getting slapped with "overweights" and, either fined, warned, instructed to switch trailers around, or wait for next available MT to download or all the above because, now listen again, HERE, anyway, UPS still judges, categorizes, hooks up trailers according to PERCENT (%), whether it be 100% load of feathers (sorry, fthrs!) or 100% load of books.

The contract even addresses this (which should be taken out in the next proposals) when it says that if at all possible, the heaviest trailer is to be hooked on the front. AND, if there is a difference of more than 25% (there's that %, again) the driver has the right to switch em around.

Funny, again, that SOME states even have laws that state the heaviest one has to be on front, levying fines. We border on such one and the fines have been pretty hefty. One driver, not from here, was even jailed because the company had not paid the fine. A former sleeper co-driver of mine was held and not released until the company IMMEDIATELY sent payment for past fines!

No scales here. I know, in some parts of the country, UPS does have scales on property, Cachsux, I think you can verify that yours does. But, when we were there, cobwebs, tumbleweeds and dust covered it. In other words, NOT USED!

AND, before all you company people jump on me or this thread and talk about cost, I know! But, you know what? I think here, HERE, about half or maybe most of the cost could have been recouped by now with all the fines that have been paid and lost time switching at scales.

Anyway, I think it's funny that UPS can set up a booth at a street rod gathering to weigh cars but cannot and probably WILL NOT even consider installing scales on property.

Carry on

 

[cachsux]

Sorry Race, there are no scales here. I think what you may remember collecting dust was the fancy snow-scrapers to clean of the tops of trailers. Until they realized they don`t work and have never been used and now stare us in the face as a reminder of some desk jockeys bright idea.
As far as trailer weights it`s a guessing game here as well.

 

[tarbar66]

Back when feeders had a Division Manger or two in every district there was talk of utilizing scales at truck stops to check the weight of certain origin loads. This started because business was booming and RPS(now FedEx Ground) was not yet a viable competitor. I was making CPU pickups and I had a ride along and the manager commented about the weight I was loading. The next day I was told to ask each shipper what they thought the weight was of their pickup. Some customers actually weighed the packages on the pallets before I hand loaded them into the drop frame pup. The gross weight of the pick up packages that day was somewhere between 27,000 & 28,000 lbs. in one 28' pup. Some customers did help me load. About a week later on a Friday night the driver going from the Center to the Hub with one of my CPU pup and a local sort pup was pulled over and weighed by a roving DOT check. He was within 1,000 lbs. of the legal weight limit. Every one knows that Fridays used to be a light P/U day, otherwise he would have been cited.

Two weeks later I started meeting a driver from another center with the heavy CPU trailer to prevent the overweight set from happening. The boss didn't want to pay any fines!

 

[some1else]

Dude making the cost savings argument will not work; safety? Maybe depends on who is looking


Wonder what the guy got for the night in jail? $$. I wouldnt want to spend the night for any less than 2weeks pay

 

[cachsux]

We have always believed ,unproven, that law enforcement was in UPS` pocket. When the "popup" scales come out I never have nor anyone I know out of the CACH have ever been waved over. When venturing out far enough on the highways to encounter a state scale I have always gotten the green pass through light and never stopped. Now we have the new electronic passes that are mounted in the trucks and we don`t even enter the weigh stations at all anymore.
It`s a good thing for UPS we don`t get checked like we should as I`ve seen some seriously heavy trailers here and there.

 

[tarbar66]

We have always believed ,unproven, that law enforcement was in UPS` pocket. When the "popup" scales come out I never have nor anyone I know out of the CACH have ever been waved over. When venturing out far enough on the highways to encounter a state scale I have always gotten the green pass through light and never stopped. Now we have the new electronic passes that are mounted in the trucks and we don`t even enter the weigh stations at all anymore.
It`s a good thing for UPS we don`t get checked like we should as I`ve seen some seriously heavy trailers here and there.

I know where you are coming from but in the 90's the great state of Ohio was hard on UPS at the weigh station Pa./Ohio border on I-80. I think in 1 month there were 5 drivers that got waved around back for being overweight on the drive axle. The loads were school books on a rail box from somewhere in New Jersey. The load percentages were 40 or 50%.

I think that some management person from the Youngstown, Ohio center would come out with a couple of partimers and spread out the packages to get the loads legal. I don't remember what the fines were but a couple of the drivers were unhappy that they had to work on OT instead of just waiting or sleeping.

There was also a PADOT inspector that would pull over any driver that was unlucky enough to be driving an friend Model Mack in the late 1980's. He knew he could find a defect somewhere because the tractors were at least 15-20 years old. He commented to 1 driver that that was the only way he could ticket UPS equipment back then.

 

[rushfan]

None here. One time, I hooked up 2 trailers going to the same destination, with the third on the front (which went to a different destination). IMHO it made sense. One was a bypass load the other two originated at my hub.

BINGO....out of sequence ticket, about $140. Of course UPS pays it, but it sure would make sense to provide scales of some sort to save UPS quite a bit of money.

The State of Oregon is pretty picky about weights.

 

[bluehdmc]

The labels on packages have the actual weight on them, (even though shipping rates are rounded up). Each package is scanned, (hopefully), the software could be developed that along with tracking, the actual weight of the load could be known. Of course since the costs would be more than any fines, this isn't gonna happen anytime soon.

It's like parking tickets in NYC, just the cost of doing business. I've picked up trailers from NYC and have found about 15 tickets on the rear door handle, most of them said, "unattended trailer". I think everytime a cop came around the corner he put a ticket on it. I guess it helps his "productivity", (I was told by a cop that's what they call it instead of quotas.)

I took a set of trailers out once, both were 100%, I could smell the Omaha Steaks, I guess one had considerably more steaks than the other one. The back trailer was all over the place, felt like the snubber wasn't working. I finally swapped them around in a rest area and the set rode fine after that.

Scales would be nice, I have seen weights on some seal controls from trailers coming through OH, I figured they weighed them before they built triples there. Any OH drivers want to comment?

 

[worldwide]

It's like parking tickets in NYC, just the cost of doing business. I've picked up trailers from NYC and have found about 15 tickets on the rear door handle, most of them said, "unattended trailer". I think everytime a cop came around the corner he put a ticket on it. I guess it helps his "productivity", (I was told by a cop that's what they call it instead of quotas.)

The article is 2 years old and is specific to Fedex, but I'm sure UPS pays a bundle in NYC for tickets. If Fedex paid $10.7 million in 2007-2008, just imagine what UPS pays.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/14/when-a-fedex-truck-is-absolutely-positively-towed/

 

[Just Numbers]

Just turned to the Jan/2011 issue of Street Rodder magazine (ok, I know it's been out a while but I don't get to my, uh, "library" to peruse it all at once) and saw, on page 80, referring to this years NSRA Nationals Plus in Louisville, a picture showing a drive-on scale, pop-up tent w/UPS logos and sign showing, "Scale Your Car".

Now, I find this, uh, ironic? Well, more like, humorous.

Oh, I know this was a PR stunt, beings Worldport is right there but funny just the same.

All around the country, well, here, anyway, feeders are getting slapped with "overweights" and, either fined, warned, instructed to switch trailers around, or wait for next available MT to download or all the above because, now listen again, HERE, anyway, UPS still judges, categorizes, hooks up trailers according to PERCENT (%), whether it be 100% load of feathers (sorry, fthrs!) or 100% load of books.

The contract even addresses this (which should be taken out in the next proposals) when it says that if at all possible, the heaviest trailer is to be hooked on the front. AND, if there is a difference of more than 25% (there's that %, again) the driver has the right to switch em around.

Funny, again, that SOME states even have laws that state the heaviest one has to be on front, levying fines. We border on such one and the fines have been pretty hefty. One driver, not from here, was even jailed because the company had not paid the fine. A former sleeper co-driver of mine was held and not released until the company IMMEDIATELY sent payment for past fines!

No scales here. I know, in some parts of the country, UPS does have scales on property, Cachsux, I think you can verify that yours does. But, when we were there, cobwebs, tumbleweeds and dust covered it. In other words, NOT USED!

AND, before all you company people jump on me or this thread and talk about cost, I know! But, you know what? I think here, HERE, about half or maybe most of the cost could have been recouped by now with all the fines that have been paid and lost time switching at scales.

Anyway, I think it's funny that UPS can set up a booth at a street rod gathering to weigh cars but cannot and probably WILL NOT even consider installing scales on property.

Carry on

I think maybe I can shed light on some of these things. I'm hearing a lot about trailers but you mention weighing your car. Ups does have driveover scales at their gateways to weigh air containers which will usually weigh more than a car. This is for weight and balance on the aircraft. So these scales do exist at UPS facilities that deal with air operations.

 

[raceanoncr]

I think maybe I can shed light on some of these things. I'm hearing a lot about trailers but you mention weighing your car. Ups does have driveover scales at their gateways to weigh air containers which will usually weigh more than a car. This is for weight and balance on the aircraft. So these scales do exist at UPS facilities that deal with air operations.

Well, does that mean we have to drive to an air operations to weigh our trailers?

I know air operations have scales for the cans. It is absolutely essential that the aircraft be balanced.

Can I drive my car over there to weight it? I don't care about the weight of my car, I already know it.

Read the post again. I'm talking about the irony taking the time, money, people out to make a PR impression to weigh cars that drivers probably already know but won't take the time, money, people out to weigh something that is also essential, well, at least to feeder drivers. And, yes, it's obvious, it's not important to anybody else!

 

[lazydriver]

For Pre-Pass there are weight sensors in the roadway, that is why you must remain in the right lane when approaching the weigh station. I was 400lbs over with a 53 and single axle and got the red light to go into the weigh station. Years ago on the PA turnpike I was in an friend model with class 8 loads 80000-100000lbs, I knew this because you are weighed as you approach the toll booth and receive your toll ticket it prints your class on it. There are no weigh stations on the PA turnpike, only sometimes the DOT vans are waiting at the toll booths. I think back then, friend models were only rated for 66000gvwr.

 

[tarbar66]

For Pre-Pass there are weight sensors in the roadway, that is why you must remain in the right lane when approaching the weigh station. I was 400lbs over with a 53 and single axle and got the red light to go into the weigh station. Years ago on the PA turnpike I was in an friend model with class 8 loads 80000-100000lbs, I knew this because you are weighed as you approach the toll booth and receive your toll ticket it prints your class on it. There are no weigh stations on the PA turnpike, only sometimes the DOT vans are waiting at the toll booths. I think back then, friend models were only rated for 66000gvwr.

I'm glad to see I was not the only one that pulled class 8 loads with a 202 or 237 hp Mack.

How many BC people have driven a friend Model Mack for UPS? I'm betting less than a thousand. What's your guess?

 

[Highwayman]

Yes I started in 1988 and drove a 1978 friend model Mack. Wow were they JUNK. I have pulled loads on the PA Turnpike that were Class 8 with 4 axles, never stopped or turned away for over weight. Last winter was the first time I had real a problem with the percentage system. Hooked up 2 100 percenters in a snowstorm and got stuck on a hill on the interstate because the front trailer was lighter than the rear. That was the first time in 22 years I couldn't make it without a tow. I think the weight could be figured approximately by the scan data at least we would have a clue. Merry Christmas!

 

[raceanoncr]

I'm glad to see I was not the only one that pulled class 8 loads with a 202 or 237 hp Mack.

How many BC people have driven a friend Model Mack for UPS? I'm betting less than a thousand. What's your guess?

Yes I started in 1988 and drove a 1978 friend model Mack. Wow were they JUNK. I have pulled loads on the PA Turnpike that were Class 8 with 4 axles, never stopped or turned away for over weight. Last winter was the first time I had real a problem with the percentage system. Hooked up 2 100 percenters in a snowstorm and got stuck on a hill on the interstate because the front trailer was lighter than the rear. That was the first time in 22 years I couldn't make it without a tow. I think the weight could be figured approximately by the scan data at least we would have a clue. Merry Christmas!

Pulled a "100%" 40-drop-frame with a 1971 "friend" Mack out of a pickup account.

Pulled into always-open scale (before PrePass, of course) and got the green light. A mile down the road, got pulled over by scale cops. "Why?" "Well, we're so used to you guys never being close to overweight, I just gave you green light. You gotta come back and make it right."

Was 98,000 on 80,000 license.

Also drove 1965 company Emeryville.

 

[tarbar66]

Pulled a "100%" 40-drop-frame with a 1971 "friend" Mack out of a pickup account.

Pulled into always-open scale (before PrePass, of course) and got the green light. A mile down the road, got pulled over by scale cops. "Why?" "Well, we're so used to you guys never being close to overweight, I just gave you green light. You gotta come back and make it right."

Was 98,000 on 80,000 license.

Also drove 1965 company Emeryville.

Did you load that trailer or did we spot it and the customer loaded it? I was at a CPU and I was loading cases of cassette tapes going to Ford dealers in the 90's. One of the ladies asked me if I was going to fill the trailer? I asked why and she said if you figure that each box was 6 pounds and they were only as big as a boot box you will be overweight. I stopped loading that trailer at 3,000 pieces, I had the bottom full, the nose only waist high and nothing on the flaps. The rest of the 2,000 pickup packages went in another pup. The Bulldog was growling on the way back to the center.

I never drove a Emeryville but I had a lot of windshield time in Diamond T's and Reo's.