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Troy: I’m your co-host, Troy Diffenderfer.
Lenay: And I’m your favorite co-host, Lenay Ruhl.
Troy: And Lenay, I feel like this has been the longest possible month of my life. I feel like this weather is bringing me down and it was tough to get out of bed these last couple days. That’s for sure. I need…I need…give me something, give me something to look forward to.
Lenay: I mean way to start the episode on a high note Troy.
Troy: I know, I know, but I feel like a lot of our listeners can go through those weeks when, especially in the wintertime, things are just very tiresome, very sluggish.
Lenay: Yeah, I know, I do think it’s always hard this first month, couple weeks of November, like when the time changes, and it gets dark really early. But for me, I don’t know, I mean I went to the movies the other night, which I haven’t done in like a year, so that was pretty cool and I think you just got to find things to do to keep preoccupied.
Troy: That’s true, you did mention that Thanksgivings around the corner, and you are right about that, so I’m definitely looking forward to some turkey and eating some good food. That’s for sure.
Lenay: Yeah, I mean that’s one thing you can definitely do in the winter is just eat a lot.
Troy: I know, but I feel like, I mean any time after Thanksgiving, now I’m going to be terrified to step on the scale and weigh myself after we’ve talked about multiple episodes of me trying to eat better.
Lenay: What, what do you have for Thanksgiving dinner, Troy? McDonald’s?
Troy: No… we have the usual turkey. I’ll eat at least like eight pounds of mashed potatoes.
Lenay: Oh my god, me too.
Troy: Pumpkin pie, that’s one thing. Usually in the Fall, my mom will barter with pumpkin pie for me to do things for her. I’ll change her oil in exchange for a pumpkin pie. Or I’ve definitely done things around the house specifically for pumpkin pie, which that’s the way to my heart for sure.
Lenay: I don’t like pumpkin pie, but apple pie. I am all about it. But definitely for Thanksgiving, my favorite is a green bean casserole. I make it every year for my family and yeah…
Troy: What’s Thanksgiving like at your place? Give us the sense…give us the censored version for our listeners.
Lenay: Alright, well, so we’re trying something different for Thanksgiving this year. We have…let me see…I think 12 of us in total, all of my aunts and uncles and cousins. My grandparents, they don’t want to come. Surprise, surprise! We are going to my parents’ cabin, up in Huntington County, Pennsylvania. It’s right near Raystown Lake, so we’ll be up there from Wednesday night until Sunday.
Troy: Uh oh…
Lenay: Twelve people, one bathroom, one baby, well toddler, and a dog. We have a Facebook page to organize this event. I have assigned everyone exactly what meal they’re supposed to bring, and it is BYOB, which for my uncle, I did have to specify “B” stood for beverage and he did not, in fact, have to start drinking. But he might want to, you know, after the weekends over.
Troy: Do you guys at least have a T.V. up there? Because I feel like I wouldn’t survive without being able to watch some Thanksgiving football.
Lenay: Oh yeah, we have a T.V. I’m not sure what the cable situation will be like, so, oh man, I better not mention that to my cousins cause Thanksgiving will get canceled. And then, we have my brother-in-law, who loves music, so we’ll probably…he brings his like old school boom box everywhere we go with an entire box of CD’s and so we’ll probably be listening to a lot of classic country and singing around the fire, so…should be good and hopefully the fighting will be at a minimum.
Troy: Sounds like fun.
Lenay: Yeah, what about you? What do you guys do?
Troy: Ours is usually lowkey. We’ll have my wife’s family over. My mom will be there, and we usually have it at our house. It’s pretty relaxed. It’s definitely stressful around this time, especially…for those listening at home, we’re dead in the middle of a house hunt, so we could possibly be closing on a house right around Christmas, which will be the most stressful, but most awesome Christmas gift I think I ever had, but so that might be a little stressful for sure.
Lenay: Yeah, for sure. But life is full of the good and the bad, right?
Troy: Exactly.
Lenay: So today, we’re going to talk about something that probably falls into that category; it’s good and it’s bad. But maybe that’s debatable for some of you. We’re talking about weigh station rules. So, the weight of your truck and measuring all that when you’re going down the highway. Yeah no, don’t worry, this is not going to be an episode about food or health or anything like that.
Troy: I know, but just like after Thanksgiving, I might not want to weigh myself. I’m sure you Truckers, might not want to go through the hassle of weighing your rigs, but it’s definitely an important part of the industry. That’s for sure. And an important part of the safety of the industry.
Lenay: Yeah, for sure. So, I think the first thing when we’re talking about weigh station rules that everyone should know, I mean especially if you’re new to trucking is that there are different rules in pretty much every state. So, in order to find those, you’ll want to go to the state government websites and they’re usually somewhere on there. But a general rule of thumb, most states require that trucks that weigh 10,000 lbs. or more have to stop at a weigh station.
Troy: Yeah, like Lenay said, any state website should have them in detail. We are going to drop a blog in the show notes that’s going to give more of a brief overview and a state by state look at some of the rules. One of the most basic rules, like she said, is 10,000 lbs. or more, but obviously, it depends on what you’re hauling, how often you need to stop and things like that. We’ll try and provide more of that information in the show notes for sure.
Lenay: Yeah so, when you get to that weigh station, right? And you’re super annoyed and you’re in a hurry and you know, maybe it’s about to snow and you don’t want to stop cause you want to get where going, the most important thing is despite all of that is to stay calm and not get frustrated. Obviously, if you do that, you can delay how fast you get through that weigh station.
Troy: I know, I feel like that would be the toughest thing for me. You know me, I’m not the most patient person, especially I don’t like to be late, I don’t like when other people are late, and…
Lenay: I’m always late.
Troy: Exactly! So Lenay’s learned that before. Whenever we make plans together, it’s usually me texting, “Hey I’m here,” when it’s 20 minutes early and expecting her to also be there.
Lenay: And I’m usually 20 minutes late.
Troy: Exactly! So, I feel like that would definitely be tough for me, but again, as long as you keep a level head, it’s definitely going to make life easier for you. For sure.
Lenay: Yeah and secondly, once you get through there, make sure you keep your ticket for your records. This is something I would be terrible at. I can literally lose something within seconds. Like if I go through the turnpike and I pull out my ticket, I can lose that like…I mean it has to be somewhere in the car, right? But who knows where?
Troy: Yeah, you’re right. I’ve already lost 12 tickets driving like from five miles, from like one toll booth to another. I sat it in the passenger seat and it just disappeared into thin air, and then you end up paying like five times the amount that you really needed to pay.
Lenay: Did you ever go through a toll booth and you go to pull the ticket out and the wind takes it away?
Troy: I have not, but I definitely…I’ve done it all. I’ve been through toll booths without realizing that I didn’t grab a ticket, things like that. I feel like every road trip, I go on, I get at least one thing in the mail from a random state saying that I missed a toll.
Lenay: We’d be terrible truck drivers.
Troy: For sure! Just from our honeymoon, I got two different state letters from missed tolls. One in Massachusetts and one, I think, in New York. That I just like had no possible idea and it was a nightmare.
Lenay: Yeah, so speaking of forgetting and all that good stuff. How do you get out of stopping at the weigh station? The main thing is obviously if the station is closed, you don’t have to stop, so if you’re passing through on a weekend, late at night, or on holidays, those are the most likely times when the weigh station won’t be open.
Troy: And then other ways to use these pre-pass devices. Think about being normally on the road, you can use the EZ pass obviously to get through these tolls. This is basically the EZ pass for weigh stations. There’s a variety of different apps out there. One we actually spoke to in the last episode so if you haven’t gotten a chance to listen to it, make sure to go back. That’s all about the different apps for truckers. That one was called “Drivewyze” and that basically lets you bypass some weigh stations. You’ll essentially put money on an account and it’ll automatically kind of bypass that for you, so you can just keep on trucking.
Lenay: Yeah, for sure. So, that’s like a really high-level basic overview of the deal with weigh stations, but I’m sure you truckers out there have a lot of stories about the things you’ve dealt with weigh stations and probably some tips for new truck drivers, who are hitting these stations. So, if you have those things, use hashtag Big Rig Banter (#BigRigBanter) and reach out to us on social media, so we can get this conversation started and spread the word about how to make weigh stations a little less inconvenient for everyone.
Troy: For sure and again, don’t forget this podcast is powered by All Truck Jobs, the job board. And we’re pleased to announce if you want to sponsor this content, you can now shoot us a direct message and we’ll give you the details on our new ad opportunities. This is a really exciting opportunity for any businesses out there that want to get in front of our audience and there’s definitely some really cool and creative ways that you can partner with us and we encourage you to reach out.
Lenay: Yeah, I’m really excited for this. I mean, we always love to get different truck drivers and trucking companies on the podcast, and this is just another way that we can partner with you guys and make the content even better.
Troy: For sure, and again, as always, feel free to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you are listening to this episode. Reviews are crucial for us, so we really appreciate it any time you take a moment to let us know how we’re doing. Give us some suggestions and we’ll take them into consideration.
Lenay: Yeah, for sure. Is there anything else about weigh stations or anything that we forgot to mention, Troy?
Troy: Not that I know of. I won’t be hitting my personal weigh station after Thanksgiving. That’s for sure. I’m going to bypass that immediately, so…
Lenay: Yeah, me too, probably till I have to think about putting my swimsuit back on in the spring.
Troy: For sure. But once again, truckers, I’m your co-host, Troy Diffenderfer.
Lenay: And I’m your favorite co-host, Lenay Ruhl, and I just want to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving.
Troy: Happy Thanksgiving everyone! And this has been Big Rig Banter.
Music – Thanks for tuning into another edition of Big Rig Banter. For your next job check out AllTruckJobs.com, the premier online source for finding the best driver jobs in the country. Browse hundreds of positions by freight or driver type to get back on the road with confidence. Click subscribe to keep the conversations coming until next time on Big Rig Banter.
