The $8,945.00 fine

Originally Posted by Sirscrapalot

You said it PJ. At the end of the day, the driver is responsible for weight, his driving hours of service(HOS), etc.

The truck doesn't move unless the driver is ready to move it. Dispatch can yell all day but the driver decides when it hits the road. An it's all on the driver. He knows how to find a scale, he knows how to scale his load to fit properly, he knows his HOS, he knows how tired he is or how bad the weather is, etc. Or he should. An if he doesn't he needs to go back to CDL training.

So yea he's hit with a nice fine an will now know what it means to give all your money to the court. He learned a valuable lesson, he an he alone is responsible for most of what goes on while driving that truck. No different then when I started doing this gig. I threw away a lot of money. This young guy just did the same, but to the tunes of thousands an thousands. Sucks to be him but hey..I'd rather pay a fine then live with the fact I killed an entire family cause my truck was so heavy that I couldn't break in time..just saying. This could've been much worse. Go look up accidents involving big companies like CR England or Swift. He could have had it much much worse. Yea..he's getting off easy. He should be thankful he doesn't have to live with the fact he killed someone or a family. Sorry charlie..you ain't driving no pick up here.

I can't say I have sympathy for this kid. Being young is not an excuse.He accepted his role as a driver and all the responsibilities that go with it. This could all have been resolved with simple visit to a scale. I bet the 10 bucks for the scale, an the hour drive seem like a better choice vs an over weight fine.

I could go on, but..it's a nice day. I'll rant later.



Edit: Oh an Phred don't feel to bad for him. He may lose his job but some smaller company or a bottom feeder will pick him up an give him a job till enough time has gone by to move on to something better. Or he could go with CR England..I hear you just need a pulse to be a driver there.

Sirscrapalot - Commonsense isn't so common.

Yes the driver is responsible for his load unless the BOL has an incorrectly stated weight that was issued by his co.
I have seen this happen before first hand, that incident where they calculated the weight of the truck and the load but did not account for the chains, fuel, driver, and other cab contents. The driver did not have any idea that he was 2k' overweight and his paperwork stated that he was in fact 300lbs under. Company admitted they screwed up, and paid the fine.

Depending on the circumstances and a company's policy, and where the negligence originated, would determine the liability of the fine. Lesson learned for the kid either way. But according to the law, yes... it's on the driver - period, because the trooper that nails you isn't a judge and does not have the whole story nor care to hear it, as he shouldn't. He has an overweight truck, and a driver to fine. The gray area between the state trooper and JudgeFinesALot is where someone either does the right thing, or gets screwed. Period.