An overweight truck ticket can ruin lives. That may sound a bit overly dramatic, but it’s really not. Overweight trucks can cost the owner $1.00 for each pound overweight. That can translate into tens of thousands of dollars.

A large fleet can absorb one or two of those per year. Yet, an owner-operator’s profits for the year can be wiped out, sending them into bankruptcy. Surely not the overweight truck ticket alone, but there are so many other expenses the independent trucker has to juggle.

Axle Weight Prohibitions of Overweight Truck

Although most commercial truck drivers know their vehicle’s gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) and its gross vehicle mass (GVM), they might not check how the cargo handlers positioned the load on each axle or set of axles.

According to CA Vehicle Code (CVC) Section 35551, Axle Weights, “The gross weight of each set of tandem axles shall not exceed 34,000 pounds and the gross weight of the two consecutive sets of tandem axles shall not exceed 68,000 pounds.”

What’s more, CA rounds up or down at 6 inches to determine the length between axles or sets of tandem axles. Therefore, if the distance between two axles on your vehicle is 8’5”, that distance is considered eight feet, not nine, and only able to support 34,000 pounds, not 39,000 as one might assume. It might even be allowed in other surrounding states such as Nevada, Arizona, or Oregon.

In this case, you might not need a permit for that 39,000-pound payload in Nevada, but get stopped and weighed at the Truckee, CA Donner Pass Weigh Station, and it could cost as much as $5,000. You must get any necessary permits for an oversized vehicle before entering CA.

If your vehicle is overweight, you might get saddled with an out-of-service (OOS) order until you can move some of the weight to another vehicle. That could put you behind schedule with the shipper and cost you the contract. Always check the vehicle weight and get the necessary permits before leaving the shipping yard, regardless of who loaded it, especially preloaded containers.

Plus, you’ll want to talk to a CA traffic attorney right away because an overweight truck of 4,501 pounds could be a misdemeanor crime in CA. However, many traffic court judges will downgrade it to an infraction when asked by a CA attorney. It’s known in legal terms as a “wobbler,” meaning it could be a misdemeanor or an infraction.

Consult a CA Traffic Attorney about an Overweight Truck in Truckee, CA

Call Bigger & Harman, (661) 349-9300

We are CA traffic attorneys who can help you resolve your overweight truck ticket or other alleged traffic violations in Truckee, CA.

Se habla Español (661) 349-9755.

Send us an email, today attorney@biggerharmanlaw.com.

References:

The 2019-2021 CA Commercial DriverHandbook.pdf

CVC Section 35551, Axle Weights