I Bought some scrap from a guy he had it load on his trailer. To speed things along i pulled his trailer to a elevator and weighed it took it home and loaded scrap onto my trailer and reweighed his trailer. I dont like doing this because it always turns out funny. I even added some stuff to the load but their was 800 pounds $75.00 less on my trailer than the first one. Why is this? Years ago i needed to have over so many tons to get a better price so i always weighed before i left and it was always diffrent than the weight i got payed for.
This was all on the same scale? Sounds like you get good money for scrap, last time I scrapped some stuff it was $85 a ton.
You weighing the whole vehicle, or just the trailer? unhooking the trailer tongue? Every certified scale I've ever been across was more than accurate for the job.
No it was 2 diffrent scales. I weighed the truck and trailer together. Wright now it is around 215.00/ 190.00. It just came up and it has been raining i hope it stays up tell it drys out. I am going to weigh the trailer that i sold srrap on at the elevator that i weighed other trailer at tomorrow.
Scrap yards around here are bad about fudging weights. I was hauling scrap to one a few years ago, and I never liked my weights. I started weighing at a lumber mill first, and the scrap yard was always light on my heavy weight, and heavy on my light weight. I soon realized they were timing when they stamped the ticket. The needle on the scale swung low, they stamped the gross, you went and dumped and pulled back on. They stamped the ticket on the other end of the swing. I had complained a few times and they always pointed out that they were a certified scale. Once I figured out what they were doing I insisted on being in the scale house when they stamped my ticket. They whined I was holding up the line. I asked how much time they were going to lose getting bailed out after I called Weights and Measures to watch them. They were horribly nasty to me from then on, but I got paid for a ton or two more on every tractor trailer load. I also went to everybody I could find who sold to them and explained what I found. I have done a lot more in the scrap business over the years, including having the complete trucking contract for a company with 6 yards and 2 shredders. I have seen more petty corruption in the scrap business than any where else.
I know what you are saying about petty corruption. You have to whatch every one and alot of the guys that i by from have been burnt by some one. People are funny if you can talk a good line of bullcrap they will sell to you. I have been cleaning up places that havent sold any thing for years because i try to be fare and have a good reputation. I went back and weighed my trailer at the elevater and i was 40pounds light. I had loaded about 20pounds of can sacks on the way their so i was about 60 light. I still dont know wear the 800pounds went. I am going to haul another load this week and i will weigh at the 2 elevaters along the way to see what is up. I like doing this kind of work but you have to treat every one like a crook.
Scrap dealers are notorious for having light scales. We weigh our stuff on our own certified scales before taking it to the scrap yard. The load is always a minimum of 300 pounds lighter at the scrap yard. Big loads are off as much as 1000 pounds. We have our scales calibrated every six months by a third party so i'm confident that our scales are correct. They refused to accept our weight tickets so I refused to business with them...
what about fuel burn? depending on how far you are from the yard you could easily burn 300lbs of fuel in a tractor trailer grossing 80K
This was with a pickup and gooseneck and i had more gas the second time i weighed. The next day i reweighed and their was between 40 to 60 pounds diffrents in my empty weight. I have been useing the same pickup and trailer for over 20 years alot of times i will haul 2 loads a day and my empty weight will allways be diffrent. I have hauled to more than 5 yards in all the years i have been doing this but until now it didnt work out that i had weighed a load with out makeing a big change in the weight before i sold it.