Roadside & Legal · Driver Training VideoOverweight Citations & Fines

Every load you haul has a legal weight limit, and going over it costs more than a ticket — it puts you and your equipment at risk long before a scale ever catches it.

Start with the numbers

Federal law caps gross vehicle weight at eighty thousand pounds on the interstate system, with twenty thousand pounds max on a single axle and thirty-four thousand pounds max on a tandem axle group.

That's the trap most drivers miss: you can be under eighty thousand pounds total and still get written up, because one axle group is doing more than its share of the work.

Weigh stations aren't optional

If a station is open and the sign says trucks must enter, you enter — bypassing an open scale is its own violation, completely separate from anything to do with weight itself. At the scale, if you're over, the citation is only the start.

Your company standard: you verify weight at pickup with a certified scale ticket before you leave the yard, not after you're already on the highway. You check axle weights, not just gross — you adjust your tandems and confirm your kingpin setting matches the load.

One overweight citation is a fine and a delay. A pattern of them follows the carrier — safety scores, insurance costs, and how closely your trucks get pulled in for inspection going forward. Check your weight before the road does.