Getting Screwed

I never in a million years imagined I'd get screwed by my favorite adult beverage maker. But it has happened. I had sat overnight in a hotel in Charlotte the night before last while Trucky was getting a makeover in the shop (preventative maintenance, alignment, exhaust work etc). Yesterday morning I headed back to the terminal and found Trucky healthy and anxious to get rolling again. I'd gotten settled in and let dispatch know we were ready for a load and while we waited, we got washed and fueled and found an empty trailer to tug along behind us.

My Qualcomm started beeping with a load assignment fairly quickly and for that I was grateful. The load was about 130 miles away at a beer plant in Eden, NC. I wrote down all the info, noticing right away that the weight listed on the assignment was no where near the realm of legality. So I sent in a message asking if it was a typo or if the beer people were crazy in thinking we could haul that particular weight capacity. Shortly a message was returned to me assuring me it was a typo and that the weight would be legal.

So, off we go! Trucky and I hit the road in a springtime rain, northbound for Eden. The rain was on again-off again but the drive was pleasant. And after about 90 miles, we finally ran out of the rain and had sunshine peeking through lovely clouds to guide us the rest of the way.

I arrived at the shipper eager to get, grab and go! I pulled up to the guard shack and went inside to check in. I was told by one of the two guards that my pick up number wasn't correct and that I needed to turn around and drive out to the gravel lot down the road to get it straightened out. So I did just that. I made a "u-ie" and found the lot and initiated the call to get things "straightened out". There were several other trucks in the lot, which I assume were all facing the same sort of difficulties I was finding myself in.

The truck I pulled in next to was one of our company trucks and the guy was beside himself with anger at his situation, which was indeed much like my own. He however, had a correct pick up number for his load, but the guard said he had the wrong destination. I started thinking to myself..."boy this is gonna be a pain in the butt, isn't it?" as I sat on hold waiting for assistance.

After about 20 minutes of holding someone answered and I was given a couple different sets of possible numbers. With high hopes I headed back to the guard shack to try again. When I got there the gentlemen that had helped me the first time around was on break and so the other guard, a lady, helped me. I handed her the slip of paper I'd written then new numbers down on and after typing them into the computer she determined that they were not correct either.

However, out of curiosity she asked if she could try the number I'd given the guy the first time. And what do ya know... it worked! All that trouble for nothing... and at that point...I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that this load was really gonna be a pain in the rear.

When I was finally given the okay to go inside the plant I was instructed to do a few things with my empty trailer. I was to take it to the "fleetmaster" place to be inspected and have bulkheads put into place. Bulkheads at this particular location were basically two by four frames and plywood placed in the front of the trailer, for those of you not in the trucking world.

So I went there and they did their bit and I was instructed to drop my trailer and then find a place to park and wait "out of the way" since my load was still in the process of being loaded onto another trailer. I followed my directions well... I'm a good little girl.

After about an hour my load was finally complete and ready for me to inspect. I checked out the trailer finding it in good shape and then got in to the back to secure the load with load straps. I hooked up to the trailer and was ready to roll. I approached the guard shack to check out, pulling onto the scale as required and was making sure I had all my ducks in a row with my paperwork and stuff before going inside.

Inside the guard shack I found myself wondering what world I stepped into. The guard processing my paperwork seemed rather scatter brained and kept making some sort of "oopsies" (his words not mine) but eventually did produce a couple of sheets of paper that were my bills for the load for me to sign. I gave it my jane hancock and was ready for the next step when I noticed the weight listed in the center of the page.

The numbers read exactly as they had on the assignment macro on my Qualcomm, which were obviously illegal and so I made an inquiry as to why the bills did not match what the company had verified via phone earlier in the day about a typo. They made a phone call to someone and asked the question of them that I'd just posed and listened to the answer. Hanging up the phone they looked me in the eyes and ensured me that the load was not the weight listed and that it was just too much hassle to reprint the paperwork with the correct numbers on them. I was miffed but whatever.... I wanted to get rolling.

I did ask to make sure that as my truck sat on the scale outside it was not weighing in over gross. They assured me I was legal and as I am apparently way too trusting, I went on with a wave and a goodbye.

Under the assumption that I was in fact legally under the 80K gross weight I drove away and made my way back to the gravel parking lot and adjusted my tandems. Now, the paperwork said that my load was 49,808 lbs which with a tare weight of approx. 34,000 with an empty trailer would make the load grossly over gross at 3800 lbs over. But according to what the company had verified earlier in the day the load was actually only supposed to be 44K. So I was close, but still legal in my mind. Being a trusting company driver, I placed my bets on the company's information and based my axle position on being 78K.

Using my complex logical grey matter and referring to previous experiences and my earlier visual inspection of the placement of the freight, I placed my tandems at the position I felt comfortable was within the realm of legality. And then I hit the road. Things felt okay as far as the ride was concerned, I've learned how the truck rides when weights are too heavy on the drives or the tandems, etc. so I felt like I was good to go. I passed by several scales where I could have had my axle weights confirmed as legal, but honestly I felt good about it. So I passed them all by.

I ended up stopping at the house last night for my 10 hr DOT, spending some quality time with the beau. This morning as we made our way back to my truck I starting thinking about how rough the ride had been on the WV turnpike the night before. My neck was a little sore from the bouncing but it's the WV turnpike, and those of you who have had the pleasure of traversing that highway know how crummy is it for big trucks.

I felt a little concerned about the fact that I was going to eventually cross DOT scales in Ohio while not being 100% sure about my axle weights. Still thinking I was good to go, but afraid I was maybe a little off, I figured I'd stop later on down the road before I hit I-70 to scale when I might also be in need of a bathroom break.

I was bouncing along the highway when I started to realize that things really didn't feel that right. I was getting beat to hell as I rolled along. And as I rolled, I kept checking my mirrors and noticed that my tandem tires seemed a little "mashed", which in indicative of excess weight on that particular set of axles. I'd not noticed it yesterday because it was dark and rainy when I'd been driving after acquiring the load.

I knew there was a truck stop with a CAT scale that I could check things out at and decided as I got close that it was in my best interest to do so. When I arrived at the truck stop I immediately went to the scales. After getting weighed, I parked and went in to get my ticket to see how things measured up.

That's when my heart flip flopped, my stomach gurgled and I realized how f'n lucky I'd been that I'd not yet had to cross a DOT scale or been pulled over for any reason.

I was 2500 lbs over gross. The beer distributor had lied not only to me but also to my company. They allowed me to leave their property knowing full well that I was over weight, or at least they should have. I suppose there are a couple of possibilities such as their scales are not calibrated correctly or the guard didn't perform his full job function and check the read out before letting me drive off. But regardless, the folks that loaded the trailer should've been aware that they were loading it too heavy and someone, somewhere along the way screwed up big time.

Now I am also aware that as a professional driver I should have made all efforts to scale the load properly and confirm the weight and legality of the load way sooner than I did. But, trusting as I am and having been assured on several fronts, I went about my business using my own judgement that things were okay. Of course, after discovering that I was indeed over gross and completely illegal I am left looking like an unprofessional driver and feeling like a twit.

I don't mind that so much, since the primary issue resides with the beer company being responsible for over loading the trailer and allowing the product to leave illegally. But still, it makes me look and feel bad about the whole thing. Definitely a lesson learned by me.

So after the sticker shock on the scale ticket sank in, I called my company to figure out a plan of action. I'd already driven well over 350 miles from the shipper so going back wasn't an option. They decided the best thing was for me to call claims service and let them sort it out. The current solution has me sitting over night waiting until the day after a holiday when people with real problem solving skills are in the office to find an actual solution. I presume they will have another driver come along and then someone else to come along to transfer some of the product from my truck to theirs.

But who knows. So for the night I'm just gonna relax and try not to let it bother me. Who would've thunk that I'd get screwed without even getting drunk?!