Carson,CA

Well, yet another cluster led us to Carson. Let me break it down for you. :) When I last left you, we were stopped at a rest area in Rimrock,AZ on I-17. We got up that next morning and headed into Chandler,AZ for our last drop. Made the drop and actually they took us a little early. Cool. So after that we headed to the Pilot over in Avondale,AZ (just a few miles down the road) to grab some lunch and a shower. Now earlier that morning our FM had told us that he had been looking for us a load out of that area but that it was looking like we would have to deadhead to So Cal for a load. Then he sent us a message saying another team had broke down in Flagstaff,AZ and could we pick up the load heading to NJ. Figured the math and it was paying $1.82 a mile. Hell yeah we will take the load. So, finish our shower, drop the trailer we had at a drop lot there in Phoenix,AZ and we bobtail up to Flagstaff to pick up the load at the Freightliner dealership.

This is where it gets interesting. We make it to Flagstaff around 1900 hours. Hook up, find the paperwork and notice there isn't a scale ticket and there are no weights at all on the bills. And the previous team had picked up from 3 places and were dropping in two places. Soooo, it feels heavy and we never drive not knowing what we weigh, so we backtrack to the Pilot at the 185 just on the west side of Flagstaff so we can use the CAT scale. Scale it, go inside and get the ticket, and it is showing a gross weight of 80,950 lbs. Well hell. This isn't looking good. Call Rex who handles us after hours and he gets the previous team on the phone. He said he scaled it but the paperwork is at the Freightliner shop in his truck. He is in a hotel there in Flagstaff and says he will meet us there and get them out of the truck so he can give them to us. Cool deal. He said he got it legal so we figure something must be wrong with the scales and that they need re-calibrated. We meet him and he has about 5 different weigt tickets. The first one shows 80,450 gross. Then the following ones show 79,310, 79,300 and 79,450. I can see that you can change your weights on your drives and steers and tandems, but you can NOT change the gross weight. You can just shift it around but your gross weight is your gross weight. Best we can figure is that he put his steers partially on the pavement and off the scale to get it to show a legal gross weight. But even at that, his drives and tandems were still showing overweight. And he was in the 8th hole which is illegal in CA. Now if someone wants to drive illegal like that, then that is their business. But we do not drive illegal. So we decide to go about 65 miles east to a Flying J in Winslow,AZ and re-scale in case something was wrong with the other scales. (He used some mom and pop place.) So around 2145 I get the the J and scale. Nope, definitely overweight. Call back into Rex and explain that is it just illegal and won't work. Then he says that if we could burn off about 100 gallons of fuel we would be good, since we were at full tanks. Ok, has anyone noticed the price of fuel lately?? At $4 a gallon, there is no way I am burning off 100 gallons of fuel. Then he says that he talked to sales and they said that I wouldn't get pulled into the scale coming into New Mexico. Since when does their sales department have any say with NM DOT on who does and does not get pulled in? So I tell them that if they send me a message saying that Prime will pay any and all overweight tickets because they want me to continue, then I would continue. Well, no go. Imagine that. They won't do something illegal but expect me to. Now I am sure that they do this because they have drivers that will do it. And that is fine, but not me.

Well, he says he will try and find another truck but it will probably be the next morning. Ok, fine I say. I am tired of dealing with this and am going to bed. Keep in mind this is the 2nd overweight load in a row that we have had. Now I do realize that our APU added about 400 lbs, but that is all. Well, finally around noon the next day, he gets another team there and we switch loads. We take their load that is 40,300 lbs and bring it to CA and they take our good paying load to NJ. Shits. And we had to come into CA in the 10th hole because we only had 20 lbs to spare on our tandems.

So that brings me to now. Right now we are sitting at General Mills in Carson,CA waiting to be unloaded. After they do this, I have to go to a truck parking lot in Fontana and switch this 48' trailer for a 53' trailer. Once I do that, we have to book to Soledad,CA for a 0500 live load (Saturday morning) which is going to Bessemer City,NC for a 0730 appt on Monday morning. 2500 miles in 48 hours. No problem.... We should make it, but it will be one of those where we come rolling in right on time. And we won't be able to do 58 all the way if we plan on making it there on time. Hopefully we will get a good tail wind so our gas mileage doesn't suck from us driving faster.

One good thing about this is that we came into LA around 2100 local time which makes it nice and I didn't have to fight traffic. And we will get out of here at a good time too. So that makes me happy. I guess that is all for now. Hopefully this next load won't be overweight........ I would hate to go redneck on someone......