Portable scales help police to catch overweight trucks

Ohio’s fines for overweight trucks were last increased in 1988.

DAYTON (AP) — When police go fishing with portable scales for violators of Ohio’s overweight truck laws, they look for bulging tires and rigs belching black smoke under the strain of heavy hauls.

There are the usual suspects: dump trucks hauling asphalt, gravel and debris; garbage trucks; semis carrying crops to country elevators and terminals; and trucks loaded with heavy steel coils.

But there also are the unusual stops, like the overweight load of pizza sauce stopped by the Montgomery County sheriff’s office and the overweight Chinese food delivery truck cited by the State Highway Patrol.

Increasingly, police use portable scales to enforce the law, in part to nab overweight rigs that bypass fixed weigh stations such as the Preble County scales on eastbound Interstate 70 near the Indiana state line. Trucks hauling overweight loads sometimes exit the interstate at U.S. 40 in Indiana and enter Ohio using that highway, state troopers said.

Statewide, the patrol and other police agencies weighed a record 10,918 trucks with portable scales in 2007, more than twice the 5,479 trucks weighed in 2003.

In contrast, about 5 million trucks were weighed at fixed sites in Ohio in 2007, the fewest in at least six years, according to the patrol. Lt. Robert Warner of the patrol said that’s because some of those sites were closed for repairs.

Police might set up shop on a highway for several hours or for a few days until word gets around among truckers via citizens band radio of the enforcement. Then truck traffic thins out or disappears, and it’s time to “go fishing” in a new location, said Lt. Gordie Jackson, a patrol licensing and commercial standards section commander.

Portable scales have a higher likelihood of catching violations than fixed scales, and more police agencies are using them. The Ohio Department of Agriculture said 57 Ohio agencies have portable scales.

For the federal fiscal year ending in September, the Montgomery County sheriff’s office cited 94 overloaded vehicles, or 63 percent of the 149 commercial vehicles weighed on local roads. Those 94 violations — a total overload of 717,440 pounds — resulted in fines and court costs totaling $30,280. The average overload was 7,632 pounds, and the average penalty was $322.

“We get repeat violators all the time,” said Montgomery County sheriff’s Chief Deputy Phil Plummer. “It [the fine] just doesn’t faze them.”

Trucking companies are getting more state permits to haul overweight loads legally. Ohio issued more than 143,000 permits for overweight loads in 2007, up from about 108,000 in 2003.

The overloaded truck debate involves not just money, but safety. Police said overweight loads hurt big trucks’ ability to brake in an emergency and can also cause tires to blow out.

Consider:

UOhio averages 175 deaths each year in crashes involving trucks weighing more than 10,000 pounds.

U Last year, the patrol placed more than 18,000 commercial vehicles out of service for equipment violations.

U A total of 19,289 citations for overloads were issued in 2007.

Ohio’s fines for overweight vehicles were last increased in 1988. And fines often are reduced in court, said Sgt. Dave Waggoner of the Madison County sheriff’s office who has more than 20 years of experience in commercial vehicle enforcement. “They’re paying almost nothing for destroying something.”

Meanwhile, the cost of repairing roads continues to climb. Asphalt has more than doubled in price to $48 per ton from just under $23 a ton 20 years ago, according to data provided by the Miami County Engineer’s Office.

Road construction costs have jumped 41 percent just in the past three to four years, said Glenn Sprowls, executive director of the County Engineers Association of Ohio.

Yet the association hasn’t actively pushed for increases in fines for overweight loads. Sprowls said local governments’ needs wouldn’t be met by fine increases alone. Instead, the association has advocated for higher license plate fees, which also haven’t been raised since the 1980s, Sprowls said.

Larry Davis, president of the Ohio Trucking Association, said fines should be raised if they’re not sufficient. But he said truckers who receive special permits to transport overweight loads often are penalized unfairly if they’re found in violation of the extra weight limit.

For example, a truck that receives a special permit to weigh up to 100,000 pounds instead of the normal 80,000-pound limit is fined for the amount of weight exceeding 100,000 pounds, plus the 20,000 pounds authorized by the special permit.

“They’re just hammering [trucking companies] to death,” Davis said.

Davis said trucks account for 10 percent of miles driven in Ohio, but pay 39 percent of taxes, tolls and registration fees to operate on highways.

“I find a very small percentage of motor carriers intentionally and belligerently trying to exceed the weight limits,” said Jeff Davis, vice president of safety and human resources at Dayton-based Jet Express, which hauls engines and transmissions for General Motors. “Most work very hard to stay within the weight limits.”

Davis favors enforcement focused on repeat violators. He’d like to see federal regulators do more investigations of those trucking companies’ safety practices.

“Our margins in this business are very thin,” said Tom Cronin, president and part-owner of Dayton Freight Lines. “We can’t afford to eat overweight tickets and still make money on a load.”