Eli5 what highway weigh stations are and why police are there?
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Highway weigh stations are to enforce weight limits for the road. A standard semi is limited to 80,000 pounds gross, if they’re over that they’re not road legal. However, a permit can be had which allows oversized and overweight cargo, with the permit fees ostensibly helping to offset the extra wear to the road.
The police are there as part of the enforcement. They may also be doing DOT checks etc. This can be ensuring the DOT numbers on the side are valid, that the vehicle itself is road legal, that the drivers have their paperwork both for OTR time and their cargo (I believe it’s illegal for a semi not to have documentation for what is in the trailer, don’t quote me on that).
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