When they ask for light weight?

Tare-your light weight of the truck/trailer. Say 35k Make sure you adjust weight for fuel on board.
Net-How much you can haul. 45k
Gross-Your total weight. 80k

 

Whatever is lighter, lol. Just kiddin'.

It's a good ideal to scale with full tanks because if you let them many will have you running on half tanks. It doesn't pay anymore.

Anytime you get a new truck the first thing you should do after moving in it of course, is to find an empty and go scale out. Then you know what you can haul.

 

A lightweight tractor is a smaller version, mainly a shorter sleeper berth. The idea is if the tractor/trailer combination (empty) is lighter, you can stuff more cargo in it. Depending on the carrier, it may pay more. And it opens up loads that others with heavier tractors can't pull.

 

They also sometimes ask for a certified light and heavy weight along with the bills so you do that at a certified scale and get a printout of it. Scale when your empty and loaded thats whay that means.

 

tare weight is effected by a lot of things. Frame thickness, axle make up, wheel hubs, frame length, double frame etc. More so than 10-12 inches of sleeper length. (yeah, it'll make a difference, but not like the rest of the cast iron and steel will.) Fuel take size won't make near the difference for you that the fuel the tank holds will.

But combined, all those little things add up to make a big weight difference. My truck will scale 45,350 easy in a reefer and that's with full tanks on both the truck and trailer. Not bad considering most reefer loads are around 43-44,000 lbs or less.

 

With a "lightweight" tractor and trailer we're talking about 49,000 pound reefer loads.

 

usually we send Dennis, he's 57, 5'5", 120 lbs soaking wet.

 

I'll give you a straight answer...

When a shipper asks for a "light weight", they need to know what you weigh empty (tractor and trailer). They want this info so the loader knows if you can haul 17, 18, or 20 skids. Easier to load once and have it right, rather than have to have the truck back in a dock to add or to remove a pallet.

As you phrased it..."get a light weight"...generally this means they need a certified scale weight as proof, they won't/don't trust the drivers knowledge of his truck weights.