Weigh Hot

DATELINE: CARTERSVILLE, GA, 8:30 p.m. EDT

Miles Today: 289

Not a large sum of miles today, but I didn't have a full complement of hours available for driving. But I did make my pickup this afternoon and am on my way north. By the way, it's HOT down here. 100 degrees plus. "Hotlanta" is right! I'm glad I'm northbound now. Anyway, tomorrow I'll be driving to the Vandalia, OH terminal. I have an appointment for them to give my truck a regular maintenance going-over on Sunday morning. After that I'll haul my load to the northeast part of the state to make that delivery. (Optional: I may take a 34-hour break in Vandalia since I'm bumping up to my 70-hour work limit every day. But I should get enough hours back each day to keep me working--and earning--'til I head home for time off on Thursday.)

I've stopped for the night at a TA here that I've visited once before. If you recall my long day from last month (see my posting, "The Waiting Game -- A New Record" from July 6), this is the place where I started that day before driving into Atlanta.

Now I'll go ahead and answer reader dennis the accompanist's queries, which are: "So, tell us about weigh stations. I've been by enough of them, but never had to stop in one. So what do they do? Do they vary from state to state? What if you're overweight? (The truck, that is, not you personally!)"

Well, DtA, the states have weight limits for trucks to keep them from grinding up their roads. For example, a truck like mine with 5 axles has a limit of 80,000 pounds gross vehicle weight (GVW). Furthermore, each axle (or pair in the case of tandems) has a limit. Again using my type of truck as an example, the steer axle (the one in front) has a limit of 12,000 pounds, the drive tandems (at the back of the cab, under the front of the trailer) and trailer tandems have a limit of 34,000 pounds each. Different types of trucks have different weight limits, but the limits are pretty standard from state-to-state. The purpose of the weigh stations is to find overweight trucks in order to generate revenue for the state's coffers. Most of the time it seems that weigh stations are closed, but when they're open we're required to drive through them.

Most of them have "weigh-in-motion" scales that weigh each axle as the truck drives up the ramp to the station. If the w-i-m readings are fishy, you'll be directed to the big scale in front of the building, otherwise you're directed to bypass the scale and return to the highway (the most frequent happenstance). If the big scale finds your truck overweight, then you're directed to a parking area and you have to meet with the nice officers. That hasn't happened to me yet.

When we pick up a heavy load, we're best off going to a scale at a truck stop to
find out if the axles are legal before we come across a weigh station. I'm sure you recall me mentioning weighing my truck at truck stops in previous posts.

So that's the scoop on weigh stations. Thanks once more for checking up on me, and keep on truckin'.