Heavy, man.

Hurried through a pre-trip inspection on the trailer. I figured I had time to get it to the customer with about half an hour to spare, if I got a quick enough start,

As I quickly checked the tires and brake shoes, I noticed the tandems were slid back a little. Not unusual--if the load was heavy enough, the driver who brought it up from Florida would've had to move the wheels to even out the weights. Or else the load before that had to be balanced, and this driver hadn't bothered to set them back. I've been seeing a lot of that lately.

Finished hooking up and swung around to the gate. There I got the Bill of Lading and started on my paperwork.

Hmm. Less than 14,000 pounds. One of these trucks can (legally) pull more than 45,000. My company doesn't expect weight-balancing problems before 37,000 or so (read: if I want to scale a load that light, I can pay for it myself). 14,000 is nothing.

Lazy driver, I decided. After all, leaving the tandems slid back doesn't HURT a light load. Makes it hard to take a tight corner, but this trip was pretty much all Interstate.

So I was lazy too. I was in a hurry, after all.

Eighty miles down the road was a weigh station. There always is. Good thing I was light--they're often backed up, and I was short on time, but this state uses PrePass(tm) to pre-screen us. Wouldn't even slow me down--

The PrePass transponder flashed red. Huh?

Pulled into the weigh station, wondering. Fortunately there wasn't a backup. Slowly I rolled over the scale, under a watchful official eye. No signal to stop, so I went on.

Sometimes they'll stop you just because...

The only other weigh station I passed was closed. So I got the rest of the way with only roadwork to slow me down. The truck seemed too be working pretty hard on the hills, though. Have to talk to the shop, I thought.

Got to the customer and handed over the paperwork. The guard did his business and gave me signed copies of the Bills of Lading.

Bills. Two of them.

One I'd already seen. The other described another 30,000 pounds.

A 44,000 pound load needs to be scaled. Fortunately, the previous driver had done that. At least I presume so. And my truck must've been about the same weight. But that's not the way to bet.

I would have scaled again. If I'd read the paperwork right, that is.

Good thing I was in too much of a hurry to "fix" the tandems, no? Sometimes I'm luckier than I deserve...