DOT station, DOT station with warning, DOT station with rest area,
DOT station with turnout (extra parking)
DOT station, DOT station with warning, DOT station with rest area,
DOT station with turnout (extra parking)
DOT stations are official state locations where the various state Departments of Transportation enforce the state laws upon commercial carriers; they may be referred to as weigh or inspection stations, or as Ports of Entry. We will use the term "weigh station" to mean any such state-run facility, such as truck inspection stations and Ports of Entry, as well as weigh stations themselves. The activities carried on at a weigh station thus may include weighing truck axles for load compliance, inspecting trucks (and particularly brakes) for safety, registering truck loads for purposes of taxation and so on.
The image at the left depicts a display of a pair of weigh stations on the Wyoming/Montana border. The Montana station, with the red border indicating that there is something unusual about it, has its Info "bubble" expanded, indicating that it is on I-90 at x510, and regulates in both directions. It is near the town of GarryOwen on the Crow Indian Reservation, near the site of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The remarks state that it is between the lanes of I-90, is old, and possibly is being replaced by the weigh station near Ranchester, WY, which has become a Port of Entry for both states, a phenomena that is becoming more common on the Interstate System. Below that is a pair of image links.
A weigh station may interdict traffic on one or both lanes of an interstate, and other local roads, sometimes simultaneously. Some stations are manned around the clock, but many are only manned during business hours, and some, particularly rural sites on local roads, only occasionally. The facilities vary as well, from very elaborate with permanent buildings, special lighting and extended parking areas to simple roadside turnouts. The latter can be very hard to identify unless actually driving in their vicinity where the signage is visible.
We define a weigh station as a fixed location in which trucks are required to stop on a regular basis. The basic sine-qua-non of a weigh station is permanent signage which indicates where the weigh station is, even though the signage may include a open/closed tag which is almost always "closed". A simple turnout which may be manned by a flying state inspection crew (including portable signage) is not a weigh station for our purposes, but one that has a permanent sign and is manned occasionally (i.e., usually closed) qualifies. A permanently signed chain check station will be indicated, as will dedicated chaining areas where they are known.
The number of such stations varies, from one in Alabama to thirty or more in each of Washington, Oregon, California and Texas. Nevada has no weigh stations, but does have state inspection stations. Several may be grouped together on adjacent roads surrounding an interstate highway, in order to be able to observe all the traffic through an area.
The key fact about weigh stations for truckers beyond truck inspections is that nearly all can weigh a rig's axles for the over-weight conditions which can cause road pavement failure. The extreme expense such abuse to the highway surface can cause makes enforcement of weight laws very strict; a truck with an overweight axle can be placed out-of-service until the condition is remedied at the station, and the driver, as well as the trucking company, may be held responsible for a fine. It is therefore common practice among truckers to weigh newly loaded trucks at truck scales before encountering a state weigh station, and therefore knowing where these places are relative to a truck scale and the pick-up point can be important. Newer trailers may sport integral weighing systems to alleviate the problem, but nothing beats a certified scale receipt.
Commonly, trucks are generally required to visit the first Port of Entry station upon entering a state for purposes of registering the truck and load for taxation purposes. Recently states have begun sharing weigh stations at their borders when that is convenient. For example, the weigh station along I-90 in northern Wyoming recently (October 2007) began halting trucks both inbound and outbound, as they are now acting as a weigh station for Montana as well as their own state.
It is becoming more common to co-locate rest areas with weigh stations, a move which presumably reduces system cost and uses less land resources. Also, with the advent of portable weighing equipment, it now appears that most new rest areas are being equipped with pads in the truck lanes to serve as occasional spot weigh stations. Pennsylvania seems to be in the lead in this use. There is a special icon for a rest area combined with either a hard or a portable weigh station so that one icon doesn't become lost under the other. In addition, some states have begun building more parking into weigh stations so that truckers can use the parking at night when necessary; this will be mentioned in a weigh station's notes.
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