well it had to happen one day , there i was happily heading for home after doing 9 tile p/ups from alcora and onda , never even added the weights up ,
on the way round to almunia from ricla just got over the bad bit of road and never even stopped for coffee at ricla - you know the one , woman who runs it use to live in yorkshire - there they were 2 guardia civil on the weighbridge waving everybody over
2or 3 went over befoer me and they just waved them on so i thought this is looking ok as i knew one of them had tiles on as well , no , pull over there they said so i pulled over there , the next lad on the weighbridge , who was the last there , they told to stay there ,
1 guardia civil then came and informed me i must pay !!! 385 euros
i weighed 41600 , ok no prob where is bank , so they took me to the bank , i paid and was off , 2 hours it took in all .
the guy behind me wont be moving for a while , his fine was £3850 , he was just a smidge over 49 tons , so he has to take 9 tons off ,
this was last week , i wonder if he is still there
I take it that the size of the fines depend on how much overweight you are, and not just a set price for being overweight in general.
Learn something new everyday on here.
yes , the guardia civil showed me the book and it was on a sliding scale ,
when i phoned my missus and told her i was being fined for being overweight her reply was " if you get fined for being overweight im not going to spain "
dont you just love a smart alec 
the limit is 40 ton but they let you run upto 42 ton if you pay the fine
I bet that other bloke was well sick. If it were me I think i’d still be in jail now.
so theres the profit gone then…does it pay to overload …or run bent…like i educated my boss…its you who pays the fines …and they can be very high…and that other guy…if he was an o/d with over 3 grand to pay …hes got alot of work to do before he gets his money back…its not worth it…the forwarders i work for tried to hide a can of hazardous in my trailer…so i told them that the first policeman i met i was gonna tell about it…and with no paperwork…its down to them…they soon took it off…
if you thihk 160 is all the profit from that job then you must run for peanuts , i dont run bent at all as anybody who knows me will tell you , grow up and stop being so stuck up and goody goody
Don’t you guys have scales at the truckstops to weigh your truck before you get pulled into an official one ?
Just wondering how it is over there - no offence
there are very few weigh bridges here or in europe that you can use and the ones you can use if you found yourself overweight theres nothing you can do i dont know of any truckstops with them
Carl:
there are very few weigh bridges here or in europe that you can use and the ones you can use if you found yourself overweight theres nothing you can do i dont know of any truckstops with them
Yup, public weigh bridges are difficult to find. If you then find you’re overweight, the only thing you could do is open the back doors and start throwing 
. Some agents might tell you a place where you could get the excess taken off, but it would almost certainly cost you.
Simon:
[Yup, public weigh bridges are difficult to find…
Wow !!
I’m quite surprised. So you guys don’t have a per-axle weight requirement - just tthe gross weight?
Over here and most truckstops have scales and for $8 you can get your weight per axle and peace of mind…
… and if you are over legal limits you go back to shipper and he has to take some of the load off or re-arrange it - otherwise you don’t run. Why risk your safety , on the one hand, and your driving record on the other
We do have axle weight limits and the ministry scales are dynamic axle weighers. Most public weigh bridges are only good for gross weight though. If they are on a level strip you can weigh your axles by driving on slowly and stopping where appropriate, but that only gives you a rough guide to your axle weights.
Being over weight (nothing to do with obesity 
) is an absolute offence, there are no mitigating circumstances. But, if you have the supposed weights on your documents and they are within your max gross you might get off lightly, though that is pretty unlikely.
We usually go by experience. If the load feels heavy, then we go somewhere to get weighed. As you can imagine, sometimes we get it wrong and then sometimes we get caught as well. Happily, we don’t have weigh bridges like I believe you do, where you have to be weighed as you cross state borders. There are many ministry weigh bridges dotted around the country, but they are only open for limited hours, when they can get the personnel away from other duties to man them. They can still be open a fair amount of time, but if you get enough warning, you can easily go around them and we can’t be done for doing it. The police know all the short cuts though and might drag you back, if they see you.
Well, that’s weird. How are you supposed to comply with the regulations if business doesn’t catch up. It’s supposed to be a self-regulating environment: if there’s demand for axle scales why aren’t there such scales??
Would you guys not pay £5 to avoid the headache if you had a chance■■?
I can’t understand. Call me stupid
Besides, we can adjust fifth wheel and trailer axles, but i hear only some european trucks are made with adjustable 5th wheel and trailer axles don’t slide - is that true?
CARAVAN ;HERE IN GERMANY you ill not get out of the majority of firms
when you load if youare 20kilos over the limit,the reason being that in germany the person who loads you ,will also be convicted along with the driver when an offence happens,this also goes for the safety aspect of loading and the secureing,security of the load,and offences again the loader is also a party and will be fined and possible recive points on his-her driveing licence along with the driver,
I think that’s very fair, Brit Pete, it’s the right policy.
like I’d said before - I might face some european driving in the near future, so things like that are of interest
I’m a very pro-safety fellow
Safety ensures profitability in the long term
caravan:
Besides, we can adjust fifth wheel and trailer axles, but i hear only some european trucks are made with adjustable 5th wheel and trailer axles don’t slide - is that true?
True.
As Simon said we usually have to trust to our experiences. In Finland you can be 5% over your allowed gross weight if you are carrying bulk load like gravel or logs. If you are hauling something which weight you know from documents then you are not allowed to be overweight (unless it’s winter when that extra 5% can easily come from snow). We also have 10% tolerance in axle weights.
brit pete:
CARAVAN ;HERE IN GERMANY you ill not get out of the majority of firms
when you load if youare 20kilos over the limit,the reason being that in germany the person who loads you ,will also be convicted along with the driver when an offence happens,this also goes for the safety aspect of loading and the secureing,security of the load,and offences again the loader is also a party and will be fined and possible recive points on his-her driveing licence along with the driver,
There are a couple of operations that undergo that type of treatment in the philadelphia area. as said before in this forum, laws in my country vary greatly from state to state and sometimes enforcement of the laws vary within the state. my area is very hard on quarry and trash haulers. quarries will get fined for allowing trucks to leave overweight and landfills will get fined for allowing overweight trucks to enter. if a truck enters a landfill over weight, the landfill will force the truck to park off to the side. Eventually the police will come and write the truck up. as far as i know, those are the only types of freight that get that kind of treatment.
In Spain they rarely weigh axle weight limits although this is starting to gain in popularity 
.
Generally up to 41 tons they say nothing but at 41 tons the fines start to rise on a sliding scale as mentioned previously, when you reach 42 tons then you are obliged to unload the excess an excercise with which your agent will be familiar with.
Public weighbridges in Spain are few and far betwen and there seem to be more police ones than public ones .
The 2 areas of Spain where you stand the best chance of getting a weight check are in Navarra (Pamplona) and the Basque region.