Though state laws vary, overweight tickets are often expensive and can lead to impounded vehicles. This means vehicles cannot exceed designed weight capacity, under normal operating circumstances.Ĭonsequences are costly. However, no one is exempt from having safe and compliant vehicles. There may be some organizations that have an exemption or may be permitted to run an overweight vehicle on the road. Some drivers and supervisors in the fleet industry may think they are exempt from mandated weight restrictions/limits. Tie rods, steering arms, tires, engines and other drivetrain components will wear prematurely as a result of operating above design tolerances. Failure rates on many components will increase due to added stress. Premature and preventable wear will drive up the cost of keeping trucks rolling down the road. Overloaded and overweight trucks increase the cost of maintenance. However, a preventable breakdown affects drivers and customer commitments and can even require a larger fleet due to the need to retain maintenance spares - all of which are unnecessary expenses. Operators believe streamlining to one trip can save time and money. At times, vehicles are overloaded with the misconception of being more efficient. Another significant educational opportunity is the cost of downtime. Components broken as a result of exceeding capacity can be completely preventable. Ultimately, these design characteristics recognize the physics within the operating environment.ĭowntime can be a major expense for any organization. All these critical components are set to operate within a specific range of parameters. Manufacturers recognize these effects in vehicle design and the influence external forces have on important components like brakes, powerplants and powertrains. Isaac Newton’s laws of physics state items in motion stay in motion, and objects at rest will stay at rest until compelled to change action by an external force. All these scenarios can cause immediate and unsafe conditions for the vehicle, operator and general public. Steering and handling are impacted, and in extreme cases, the truck loses front axle traction.Įxcess speed and maneuverability are significant issues (i.e., a large vehicle traveling down an incline can gain additional speed paired with decreased maneuverability and stopping distances). These factors can affect the entire characteristic of the truck. Operators can misjudge necessary stopping distance when a vehicle is improperly loaded.Īnother example is maneuverability and steering (i.e., when a vehicle exceeds weight on the rear axle which creates an imbalanced load). Simply stated, an overloaded truck requires more distance to stop. ![]() Most important, stopping distances are dramatically impacted. Steering, maneuverability, braking and acceleration are all affected. Improperly loaded vehicles or those that exceed the weight rating will have a dramatic effect on performance. ![]() It is limited to the weakest component in the axle system, including suspension, tires and brakes. GAWR covers each axle on a truck and trailer. In short, if the load rolls with the truck, the weight is included in GCWR. This covers the weight of the truck, any cargo and the trailer. GCWR is the maximum allowable weight for a truck and trailer combination. Several other factors beyond GVWR can contribute to a truck being characterized as overloaded, including gross combined weight rating (GCWR) and gross axle weight rating (GAWR). Industry professionals generally know gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) represents maximum vehicle weight, including chassis, body, auxiliary equipment and payload. ![]() With some forethought in the vehicle design phase and broad-based education for all stakeholders, these issues can be minimized, if not completely eliminated. This includes drivability issues, reliability and maintenance concerns, and the regulatory impacts and liability risks associated with operating overloaded vehicles. One of the biggest concerns is understanding the consequences of operating overloaded vehicles. In many cases, fleet professionals that design these work trucks only have indirect control and/or input on how these vehicles are used after being placed in service. Fleet professionals are tasked with providing safe, reliable and compliant vehicles for their organization.
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