Driver A loads a trailer at a customer premises. On exiting site he drives over an axle weighbridge, is overweight on the drive axle, but either doesn’t notice, or doesn’t care, and takes the load back to his yard.
The next day driver B picks up the trailer with the same tractor unit, and does notice the axle is overweight (weightbridge ticket stapled to paperwork).
My question is, can driver B take the vehicle onto the public highway if he drives straight to a place that will redistribute the load?
I would very much doubt it, when I was done for overweight on the weighbridge at Carlisle, I was escorted to a depot in the Industrial estate by a police car and waited while it was redistributed onto other vehicles, I would have thought that as it has been weighed and found overweight, you wouldn’t be allowed on the public highway with it, especially after it has been weighed and has the ticket.
Overweight front axle (25+ years ago) at Beattock with 4 pallets of Big Mac sauce for Mickeys D’s in Madrid, a rather pompous DVLA lady lectured me on the basics of fulcrums and levers in a very condescending manner. They gave me a movement order so I could run back to Crawford and get it shifted. I ran back to Crawford, got it moved back two pallets spaces, re-weighed and carried on south.
When I got to Bolton to load to the napkins which meant using the split load door, they put all the Big Mac sauce back up against the headboard and then loaded the napkins.
Driver A loads a trailer at a customer premises. On exiting site he drives over an axle weighbridge, is overweight on the drive axle, but either doesn’t notice, or doesn’t care, and takes the load back to his yard.
The next day driver B picks up the trailer with the same tractor unit, and does notice the axle is overweight (weightbridge ticket stapled to paperwork).
My question is, can driver B take the vehicle onto the public highway if he drives straight to a place that will redistribute the load?
Well… it depends. Is Driver B at a yard that can redistribute the load safely with a FLT or other means? Or is Drver B at a place where there is no access to a FLT and forkie? How far away is the place Driver B has to go to get the load made legal? 10 miles, 30 miles, 400 miles?
How much is the axle overweight? 5%, 10% or 100% overweight?
Is the whole unit overweight?
If so, by how much?
“Yes I know I had two IBCs of Mercury weighing 27 tonnes up against the headboard over the drive axle but it was all ok as I was within my gvw”
Lots of things to consider and unpack in your post…
Driver A loads a trailer at a customer premises. On exiting site he drives over an axle weighbridge, is overweight on the drive axle, but either doesn’t notice, or doesn’t care, and takes the load back to his yard.
The next day driver B picks up the trailer with the same tractor unit, and does notice the axle is overweight (weightbridge ticket stapled to paperwork).
My question is, can driver B take the vehicle onto the public highway if he drives straight to a place that will redistribute the load?
If you moved the fifth wheel all the way to the front, would that transfer enough weight from the drive to the steer axle?
Driver A loads a trailer at a customer premises. On exiting site he drives over an axle weighbridge, is overweight on the drive axle, but either doesn’t notice, or doesn’t care, and takes the load back to his yard.
The next day driver B picks up the trailer with the same tractor unit, and does notice the axle is overweight (weightbridge ticket stapled to paperwork).
My question is, can driver B take the vehicle onto the public highway if he drives straight to a place that will redistribute the load?
If you moved the fifth wheel all the way to the front, would that transfer enough weight from the drive to the steer axle?
Unless the TT is in a rediculous position, the weight will be distributed in the most efficient manner. This would not apply to the strange, North American configuration where the TT is mounted behind the centerline of the drive axles.
If driver B knows they are overweight before they leave the site - and your circs say they would. Then how could they justify continuing their journey out onto the road.
No, not acceptable, and yes, could be prosecuted, and the outcome would be aggravated by knowing they were overweight.