Truck Driving?

Question

When I am driving I see places where they want trucks to pull into. What are they doing? It says weigh station and some signs say inspection. What are they looking for?

Answer 1

It is customary to have your weights checked and your tandem settings. If they see a problem they will check your bill of lading and your permit book and log book and inspect your truck and trailer for safety violations.  Sometimes they do random inspections whether or not they see a problem. Some companies are checked more than others as they have had more safety violations. Owner Operators are checked more often as they are trying to make money and not spend to much on the truck and will pull an overweight load if they are being paid by the quantity.

Answer 2

Weigh stations are located within states near the borders of other states, and also commonly along highways in the state. The purpose is to check freight carrier compliance with fuel tax laws and weight restrictions.

Many states also check freight paperwork, vehicle paperwork, and logbooks to ensure that fuel taxes have been paid and that truck drivers are obeying the Hours of Service (a federal requirement). Also the truck and driver may have to undergo a DOT inspection as most states perform the bulk of their DOT inspections at their weigh stations. In some cases, if a truck is found to be overweight, the vehicle is ordered to stop until the situation can be fixed by acquiring an overweight permit. In other cases, the driver may receive an overweight ticket and may or may not be required to offload the extra freight. Offloading the extra freight may not be practical for perishable or hazardous loads.

Answer 3

In addition to the information Yo Momma gave (which is all correct), the inspection stations can red-tag a truck on the spot if they find any safety issues. Sometimes the weigh station is open, trucks have to go in, but nobody is in the station...they do this little trick to slow the trucks down. I have scale pass in my truck so I get to by-pass most of the stations, but once in awhile, they will have me scale but since I weigh all my heavy loads I have never gotten an over weight ticket which can be pretty pricey.

Answer 4

It is law that you go to the weigh stations. You must be 80,000lbs or lower in most states. They sometimes inspect the loads or just your equipment to see if its safe