The Shadow
Mark Charlton, a truck driver who is an employee of TNT, Transportation LLC, has driven an oversized load of building materials on his truck from Va. to Las Vegas.
A resident of Harrisonburg, Charlton knows the nation’s roads like the back of his hand, and after the crane loads his truck with an oversized load, he is led by a pilot car and trailed by an escort car, both cars displaying signs to warn drivers that they are nearing an oversized load.
Before the truck is loaded, many steps must be taken by TNT Transportation LLC to get an oversized load approved.
First, the company that is part of the General Freight Hauling Industry, must obtain the contract for delivering the materials, and then the company must secure the proper permits from the state or states where the roads lead to the predetermined destination of the materials.
Once delivery contracts have been signed, TNT Transportation LLC contacts High Wide & Heavy LLC, a pilot car company based in N. Y. City. High Wide & Heavy LLC specializes in obtaining permits from the states. Each state has its own rules and regulations concerning the transport of goods within its boundaries.
Once High Wide & Heavy LLC has secured the proper permits that list the route numbers that the truck carrying the oversized load must travel, the truck driver may begin his delivery from where the crane has loaded his truck.
TNT Transportation LLC must pay for the permits, the driver of the pilot car, the driver of the escort vehicle, the driver of the truck, and for all fuel. Those company costs are subtracted from the payment per load that has been agreed upon between TNT Transportation LLC and the company or institution that has purchased the materials.
Charlton remarked, “Each state has its own regulations about the way oversized loads must be hauled. For example, Ky. allows drivers to run in the dark whereas Ill. only allows us to run daylight to dark.”
An oversized load is a load that exceeds the limits designated for a normal load of material measuring no more than 8’ 6” wide and 53’ in length. Also, 80,000 pounds is the gross weight limit for a load that is not oversized.
“We are bound by contract to follow the routes that are listed on the permit, and we are insured as long as we do so,” Charlton noted.
He went on to explain that if a driver deviates from the approved routes listed on the permit to follow from the starting point to the delivery point, that the driver becomes legally libel should any damage or mishap occur.
Recalling an incident that happened recently, Charlton said, “I was hauling an oversized load of girders needed to build a bridge, but there was a wreck up ahead on the freeway, and the state police had shut the freeway down.”
He continued, “Rather than sit in traffic and wait, I pulled off the freeway onto the off ramp where a state trooper was guiding traffic, and I asked my escort driver to see if the trooper would sign off on an alternate route for our oversized load.”
The state trooper, knowing that he would be held libel for signing any such agreement should damage be done or should anyone get hurt or be killed, declined to sign, but he directed Charlton to drive back onto the freeway after he called ahead to let the first responders at the site of the wreck know that an oversized load was coming and to wave it through as soon as possible.
As for weighing stations for trucks along the interstate system, Charlton habitually calls ahead on his CB radio, and the authorities will often tell him not to stop. If the authority in charge requests him to stop, the authority will also direct him not to pull onto the scales because the scales may be damaged by the heavy load.
After the authority waves Charlton to park in a special lane for oversized loads, the authority will request to see his permit. Charlton noted that most of the time the authorities do not require him to stop at the truck weighing stations because they know that those who haul oversized loads must have their proper permits.
Charlton concluded, “The hardest part of my job is making turns because I have to pay attention to the mirrors while shifting gears with one hand and steering with the other.”
Recently, Charlton hauled an oversized load of bridge girders that were 125’ long and 14’ high from Front Royal, Va. to Chicago. Front Royal is where TNT Transportation LLC is based.
