We didn’t make it as far as we had hoped yesterday. We ended up stopping a bit early in Gallup, NM to get some work done on my computer and take a much needed break from Interstate 40. I had alot of paperwork that I needed to catch up on and emails to return.
It turns out the New Mexico and Iowa have something in common – the Motor Carrier Enforcement Officers don’t always understand “state sovereignty.” As I pulled into the weigh station on the NM border, they asked me to park and come inside. Turns out I needed a trip pass, which is not a big deal – it’s another way for them to make some money for their state. One of the officers gave me a really hard time about my Virginia registration for the truck. In Virginia, the truck and trailer are considered two separate entities with separate registrations and gross vehicle weight ratings. In New Mexico, they wanted my truck registration to include the weight of BOTH the truck and the trailer. Consequently, they accused me of being 10,000 pounds overweight because my truck registration is 26,000 pounds and I weighed in at 34,600. They wanted me to change the weight on my truck registration in order to be “legal.” Since I’ve been down this path once in the last two months, I called the Virginia office of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and they assured me that I was running legal according to the state in which I live and operate. New Mexico might have different laws for NM residents but they don’t apply to a Virginia vehicle.
What always bothers me the most about these incidents is the attitude of the officers. They always feel this need to threaten you with “very expensive tickets” or making you “leave your trailer behind” in order to be legal. Instead of just explaining what it is that they would like for you to do, they get mean and make threats. The officer that handled my situation in New Mexico was excellent – friendly and professional. The other officer manning the scales was the one that kept giving me attitude. I guess I’ll never understand why people feel they need to be rude in order to make their point. I’m thankful that there was at least one professional and courteous Officer at that station in NM while I was there!