Eating Humble Pie!

I will tell you two things about me.

✔ I am not too proud to admit when I am wrong.

✔ I despise arrogance in myself.

So... I was clearly wrong when I declared which direction El Centro was from Tecate, in fact I am embarrassed for making myself look like an idiot.  I don't need to be trying to do this stuff from the seat of my pants, especially when I am dog-tired at the end of my day and not willing to consult a map!  My mistake.

I am not happy with myself in this little exchange with Mr."Unknown" as I keep sounding arrogant, and that is not the kind of person I want to be.

So I am going to try to re-set this little conversation if I can, and we can continue it if it is helpful.  If it proves to be a waste of time I will move on from it.  I am no snow flake who can't participate in a legitimate debate, or admit when they are wrong, but it is not the purpose of this blog.  If I find a little diversion like this to be worthy I will pursue it, but if it is not then we will drop it.

Let's try and address some of the concerns raised...

"you still have chosen not to answer my question, so I'll ask again; I'm curious how you differentiate between a driver that "creatively problem solves" and one that's an intentional criminal who should be heavily fined because he chooses to ignore weight limits that are inconvenient to him?"

Specifically where I draw a line of demarcation in these matters is in the driver's volition, or his choice in the whole matter.  Let me explain what I mean as it pertains to my particular experience with this load from Tecate, because "the devil is in the details," as they say.

First off, let's establish some facts:

My empty weight (tractor & trailer) was 30,760 as shown in this scale ticket.  This was weighed after unloading in Texas, because our customer wanted it as evidence that I had been overloaded.

My loaded weight was 82,380 as weighed in Yuma, Arizona, where we have established that I could have weighed earlier in El Centro if I had been doing a better job of it all.  Where I weighed it makes no difference in my argument or our contentious friend's.  I still would have been breaking the law just to get myself to the scale.

The difference in those two scale tickets establishes that my load of rocks weighed 51,620 pounds.

My bills were clearly marked indicating a weight of 48,000 pounds.  There is almost an extra 4,000 pounds in this freight, and let's not forget that I was loaded at a Mexican drop yard, approximately a football field's length from the actual border.  There was no scale, and I got to this yard by driving on two dirt roads and a very curvy paved road through the local mountains.  Here's where I make that differentiation that you keep asking about.  Had I been able to weigh the truck on the shipper's premises, or had my bills shown an honest weight, and I made a choice to run the load as it was, then I could agree with your assessment - that would be willfully criminal, but not under the circumstances that it all took place.

"Please let me know which laws you believe are a "grey area" and OK to break in order to keep moving. I truly am curious as to where you draw the line."

I have never said that "the laws" had grey areas - I simply referred to trucking as having grey areas.You see, I was loaded with false information on my bills, and had no way to confirm my suspicions until I had broken the law.  Furthermore, I couldn't even form my suspicion until I had gotten off the dirt roads and the twisty mountain road onto a decent highway where I could get a feel for how the truck was handling the load.  And even if I took your worthy advice of stopping at El Centro I would have traveled approximately 80 miles, illegally!

"You not only chose to break the law, you chose to continue to intentionally break the law, and went out of your way to drive at night and around weigh stations in order to continue breaking the law. You apparently did so in order to keep moving so as to not lose time / money. It's not creative problem solving any more than someone who robs a bank to acquire cash is creatively problem solving to resolve their cash flow problem or someone who shoplifts a candy bar is creatively problem solving to resolve their hunger issue. There's a difference in severity but not in equivalence."

Actually there is a huge difference in equivalence, and you are smart enough to recognize it.  I was performing my duties as an employee - duties that were assigned to me.  I was working and earning my money, not stealing it.  I actually came up with a way to solve a problem that was causing me to have to break the law when I did not want to.  I didn't come up with the solution that you would have, but then again you refuse to offer any solutions of your own, because you are enjoying ridiculing mine.  I never claimed that mine was the only way to do this, in fact I could have handled it a dozen different ways, but I thought it through, and settled on what I considered the best way to deal with it so that my customer's needs were met without delays in the process.  I also tried to be efficient with my time, which I consider to be most valuable.

It has been fairly obvious from your tone that you are mostly interested in establishing your superiority in matters related to both your knowledge of the internet, and all things trucking.  I'll take the blame for that because I probably provoked you with my own tone, which I apologize for.

I am happy, as I said, to discuss these things, but if it continues along the same type of discourse where we are only going to be trying to "one up" each other, then I am done with it.  I am fairly certain you and I have crossed swords before, and I know you will not back down when you are convinced you are right. That is fine, but I am not here to argue the finer points of trucking, but rather to share my experiences with those who are interested in knowing about this lifestyle we call trucking. One of those experiences is getting yourself into what I may have ill advisedly termed "grey areas."  I know you have experienced things similar, and you may solve them differently than I.  There is certainly no intention on my part to declare my practices superior to anyone else's.  I share what has worked for me, and folks may do with it what they want.