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Mr B · 04-10-2012, 00:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by lostsheep

A couple of things may be happening here.
The load would have to be well over 40,000lbs to be overweight. In the US, a standard 5 axle truck can gross 80,000, that includes the tractor, trailer, fuel, the driver, equipment and the load itself.
My 48ft stepdeck rig's tare (unladen) weight is 33780lbs, with full fuel and all the crap I carry including 2 sets of snow chains (8 chains). That means I can easily load over 46,000 lbs.
Weight should not be an issue. If the driver did his job, he would know his trailer, and how to load it. It should have been weighed at the closest public scale if there was a question about weight.

I surmise that the load was indeed an over-size, due to the width which legally must be 102" or less. So, permits are necessary for this haul. Under 10ft, there is no restrictions about having pilot cars. 12ft usually will require one. The states each have some weird restrictions, such as NM not allowing movement over the weekend. Night movement is usually not allowed unless under a special permit.
Moving an oversize is a specialized skill, and requires the driver to set his permits for each state to allow for their bizarre time and date limitations. Sometimes an O/S will take twice as long to arrive due to the states permitting idiosyncrasies. They can be a real pain in the aaarrgh.

I can understand the tranny going out, and the delay there. It will probably mean a new set of permits, which the trucking company should pay for. Moving the cargo is on them as well, because it should have been loaded correctly at the shipper, and weighed ASAP if there was any question of weight. If it needed moved, it should have been done at the shipping location, not 250 miles away. BTW- many of us have onboard scales that will tell within a couple of hundred pounds the weight on each axle.

Possibly this load was 'brokered out'. That means some guy in his fuzzy bunny slippers picked the load up off an internet load board where the original agent posted it. Agents do this because they can't cover the load with one of their own trucks, so they list the load on a public board, or' broker it out'. That's where Mr. Fuzzy Slippers picks it up, whacks an additional 10% off the rate, and gets a cut-rate truck to haul it.
The customer is in no way responsible for tires, rims, bearings, transmission repair, nothing. He's being scammed. Royally.
He should indeed contact the nearest bulldog bottom-feeding attorney, and get with it. He also is dealing with interstate commerce here, so he may even want to contact the Federales, by which I mean the Feebs (FBI). The ICC is no more, but the Dept of Transportation is alive and well. However, the DOT is a regulatory agency, and may or may not be helpful. Cargo theft is a big thing, and this smells badly of it. They may even have wrecked his boat, and are trying to weasel out on it.
He should also contact his boat insurance company to keep them in the loop. They can be his best friend here.

Bottom line: he's the customer. He's not responsible for their repairs. He may even be able to charge them for delay. If I miss an appointment with a crane unload, it can cost me $750 an hour, depending on the crane operator.

This is why the cheaper is not necessarily better rule is there. To haul MY boat ( if I had one) I would contract the company with the best safety record (SAFER WEB ), get some references, and be sure they do not broker the load out. Boat haulers are a specialized group. Not everyone can do it. It requires a specialized trailer, and virtually every load is a permit load, so the driver needs to know his stuff.

I hope this turns out well for the OP....
Randy
n my venerable Corgi companion, Bridget

Thanks, Thats the best reply yet for the OP, Just have to wait for him to come back,

Lagoon4us · 04-10-2012, 00:16

No response from OP????? Created a lot of one sided discussion though.........

David_Old_Jersey · 04-10-2012, 02:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr B

Thanks, Thats the best reply yet for the OP, Just have to wait for him to come back,

+1

I was hoping for some input from the trucking side.

Therapy · 04-10-2012, 08:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by David_Old_Jersey

+1

I was hoping for some input from the trucking side.

Last week when the "other side" posted the thread was closed.

Maybe that is good.

CREOLE-BELLE · 04-10-2012, 08:30

First of all, many, many thanks for all your advise. I had to leave shortly after posting. Realize now that one needs to be around when asking for help. I will review the posts and answer the major questions. Be back within 2 hours.

**skipmac** · 04-10-2012, 08:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by David_Old_Jersey

+1

I was hoping for some input from the trucking side.

OK. I'm not a trucker but deal with them every week to move cargo around the US, everything from a couple of pallets across town to full trucks and tank trucks across country, much more of the later.

Spoke with the booking agent that handles most of my shipments to get his take on the situation. First, he has never experienced a situation where a trucker hijacked a shipment and held it for ransom from the owner. It can and has happened but it is extremely rare in the commercial side of the business. More common in the consumer or retail side like home and furniture moving (and apparently boat moving).

As far as what to do about it. Tracking the truck by looking for records at weighing stations and similar would be pretty much impossible. The records aren't generally online, accessible or searchable so little chance of finding any useful or up to date information this way. It is very common for trucks to have onboard GPS tracking so if you can contact the dispatcher or company that booked the original shipment they might be able to track the shipment with their system. If the truck is an independent owner/operator booking through an agent or truck broker you may be SOL with this as well.

If you can locate the truck his suggestion is to report the boat stolen to the local authorities. If reported in the right terms it would not likely be dismissed, at least initially as a civil matter. First step however should be to contact the company where the shipment was booked (if it wasn't booked directly with the driver) and lean on them hard!

Regarding the overweight claim, I routinely ship cargo in box and tank trucks which will generally weigh in a lot heavier than a flat bed trailer. Shipments of 45-46,000 lbs gross cargo weight are typical so a boat weighing +/- 20,000 lbs should be easy with a full sized trailer.

Sailmonkey · 04-10-2012, 08:48

When we moved out boat from florida to texas, the truck was in fact a 1 ton chevy pulling a quad axle boat trailer.

It is quite possible that the boat was overweight for a trailer, it doesn't always need to be a lowboy type that you load a boat onto.

Technically we were over the max towing weight for the truck, but just within the weight for the trailer. This was all in writing with the appropriate signatures next to the weight, destination and $$$$.

The Blue Heron · 04-10-2012, 09:00

I would still vote for kicking his ass...

OP its been a few days.. so whats happened in the meantime?

tropicalescape · 04-10-2012, 09:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by skipmac

OK. I'm not a trucker but deal with them every week to move cargo around the US, everything from a couple of pallets across town to full trucks and tank trucks across country, much more of the later.

Spoke with the booking agent that handles most of my shipments to get his take on the situation. First, he has never experienced a situation where a trucker hijacked a shipment and held it for ransom from the owner. It can and has happened but it is extremely rare in the commercial side of the business. More common in the consumer or retail side like home and furniture moving (and apparently boat moving).

As far as what to do about it. Tracking the truck by looking for records at weighing stations and similar would be pretty much impossible. The records aren't generally online, accessible or searchable so little chance of finding any useful or up to date information this way. It is very common for trucks to have onboard GPS tracking so if you can contact the dispatcher or company that booked the original shipment they might be able to track the shipment with their system. If the truck is an independent owner/operator booking through an agent or truck broker you may be SOL with this as well.

If you can locate the truck his suggestion is to report the boat stolen to the local authorities. If reported in the right terms it would not likely be dismissed, at least initially as a civil matter. First step however should be to contact the company where the shipment was booked (if it wasn't booked directly with the driver) and lean on them hard!

Regarding the overweight claim, I routinely ship cargo in box and tank trucks which will generally weigh in a lot heavier than a flat bed trailer. Shipments of 45-46,000 lbs gross cargo weight are typical so a boat weighing +/- 20,000 lbs should be easy with a full sized trailer.

filing a false police report will not be a lot of fun(the guy didnt steal it)It is infact a civil matter...You can spend a lot of money and time on a civil case...find him and work it out ,that will ,at the end of the day be cheaper for all concearned...

David_Old_Jersey · 04-10-2012, 09:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by Therapy

Last week when the "other side" posted the thread was closed.

Maybe that is good.

The difference is that Lostsheep is not the other side.

and OP deliberately (and IMO very wisely) ommitted reference to the other side

, whether to meet the CF rules or simply to hide from Mr Google. or both

.

My bet is that the other side is called Otis. or Bubba

.

**skipmac** · 04-10-2012, 09:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Blue Heron

I would still vote for kicking his ass...

Easy to say on the internet but if you are actually serious and not just blowing hot air this is incredibly bad advise.

Attempting this in the real as opposed to the virtual world would most likely end up with the ass kicker being locked up for assault and battery or, if the trucker doesn't want to cooperate with having his ass kicked the OP might get his own ass kicked or, if the trucker happens to be packing (not uncommon) the OP could end up shot.

Celestialsailor · 04-10-2012, 09:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by tropicalescape

filing a false police report will not be a lot of fun(the guy didnt steal it)It is infact a civil matter...You can spend a lot of money and time on a civil case...find him and work it out ,that will ,at the end of the day be cheaper for all concearned...

If a person has your property, hides it in a yard, won't tell you where it is until you give him money...then...I would say it is stolen. To roll over and pay an extortionist only allows him to get away with his dishonesty and screw the next guy the same way...human nature.

**skipmac** · 04-10-2012, 09:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by tropicalescape

filing a false police report will not be a lot of fun(the guy didnt steal it)It is infact a civil matter...You can spend a lot of money and time on a civil case...find him and work it out ,that will ,at the end of the day be cheaper for all concearned...

Did not in any way suggest a false police report. If the facts from the OP are reported correctly then the trucker has taken someone else's property and refused to return it. That qualifies as theft in my book.