Just a Splash
One day I received a phone call. Dispatch was asking me to drive to the east bound scale on I94 at the 32
7 mile marker. One of the company trucks was over 500 pounds over gross. It was on a haz mat load and I was told to make sure my logs were legal. Really? As if I were going to drive up to a scale to help off load an over gross haz mat loads with bad logs? The customer was a regular customer and I had handled dozens of their loads without a problem. Anyway I headed off to the scale.
The first thing I asked the driver was how much did the load weigh. He had a company truck just like my century class. He should have handled the load easily. He was a larger man. His wife was with him. His son and their Saint Bernard were with them too. The driver and passenger weight, including the dog, was probably 1,000 pounds. Then, the driver told me that he had just fueled at the Pilot before the scale. Now, there was also a Pilot just the other side of the scale. Maybe now, I could have talked to the driver about “Why didn’t you fuel at the Pilot on the other side of the scale?” He told me that his low fuel warning light had was on. So – You filled it up? Yup I put 175 gallons in, so I was almost out.
AAARRRGGGHHH! He could have put 50 gallons in and filled up at the Pilot just the other side of the scale. Now, he would have still been over gross, but would not have gotten caught. He was going to Philadelphia. Chances are he would not have been scaled until he burned enough fuel off to get under gross. But, he still would have been illegal. I have yet to see a law stating that you have to top off the tank every time you fuel. Keep in mind that this was well over a decade ago, I would have been tempted to cruise to the fuel the truck up just beyond the scale. Now, I keep it legal.
Diesel fuel weighs about 7.15 pounds per gallon. We have customers that like to max load us. The company gets paid by the pound. If you go in too low on fuel, you can’t add fuel. If you go in full, the load gets cut. These loads are cotton seeds loaded in GA and AL. My goal is to have enough fuel on to get back to Franklin, KY-just past the scale. I still can think like an outlaw. I know how much I weigh and don’t put enough fuel on to make me over gross.
This strategy causes me to “splash” fuel on. I will stop and put on between 50 and 100 gallons before loading the cotton seed. I like math games, but don’t play brinksmanship. With my EVO I figure on 7 MPG even though I have been averaging well over 8mpg. The side benefit is free showers. You see. The biggest problem with my increased fuel mileage is that is that I don’t smell so good. The “splash” strategy solves that issue too.