Eli5 what highway weigh stations are and why police are there?
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A lot of your basic questions have been answered, but originally weigh stations were set up to charge trucks fuel taxes and issue permits to drive on the roads of that state. A weigh station was set up everywhere a major road entered the state, and trucks had panels on the sides of them with all of the permits to let them operate legally in the state. Trucks would stop at the weigh stations and pay the money they owed to operate in that state.
Starting in 1983 and going into full effect in 1996, all of the contiguous United States and Canadian provinces are part of the [IFTA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Fuel_Tax_Agreement), which manages the collection and equitable distribution of fuel taxes. For instance, if a truck based in NC drives into SC just to purchase cheaper diesel fuel, but then is driven almost exclusively in NC, the operator will get a bill every 3 months for the difference in fuel taxes not paid to NC, and SC would send most of the fuel tax revenue they collected from that purchase to NC as well. Truck drivers are required to track all fuel purchases and log how many miles were driven in each state (this is all done electronically by a computer on-board the truck nowadays), and submit their reports to IFTA.
Not having a valid IFTA sticker on your commercial vehicle will lead to SERIOUS trouble for you.
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