Serious Fines for Overweight Trucks

 

Fines are getting higher and higher for truckers, and getting more difficult to get away with. The main objective for any commercial trucking company is to maximize its loads, and profits. And so, one of the challenges for State government is to protect the highway infrastructure from damage due to overweight trucks.

The only realistic influence the authorities have to achieve conformity with the weight limits are fines high enough cancel out any profits gained by operating overweight trucks.

Below are a few examples of these serious fines.

 

	Rhode Island, 2017 - $57,000 State police fined a company that drove an overweight truck through Rhode Island on June 27th 2017. They were given a massive penalty for transporting a 280 ton generator without the required permits.
	Wisconsin, 2017 - $20,287.86 On September 7th 2017 officers arrived on the scene of a disabled semi on U.S. Highway 10. An overweight truck had blown two tires and become immobilized. Multiple citations were issued after the road was blocked for more than 10 hours.
	Indiana, 2020 - $14,000 In Rushville on 16th January 2020, a truck driver was hit with a huge fine and his vehicle impounded after its load was found to be more than 45 tons over the legal limit.
	Oregon, 2024 - $19,400 On April 10th 2024, deputies pulled over a tractor trailer on NW Jackson School Road which carries a 13 ton weight limit. They discovered that the truck weighed over 30 tons above the permissible weight.
	Oregon, 2023 - $20,256 The Washington County Sheriff’s Office issued a heavy fine to an oversized load truck driver on June 15th 2023. The vehicle was found to be 42 tons over the limit. It was placed out of service and a larger trailer was brought in to remove the cargo.

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