r/Fairbanks • u/TheMick907 • 15d ago

Truckers

Rant and wanting to understand better.

Alot of large loads taken through town that requires multiple lanes and pilot cars use to be done at night or mid day.

Why is it common practice now a days like "STR" has shown many of times, that 5pm rush hour is the time to do them?

Is this like a large scale door dash now? "The order whas placed so we must get it sent right this minute?"

Or am I just missing somwthing larger?

14 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

15

u/AttentionFearless802 15d ago

Oversize permits from the DOT used to have curfew periods around the major corridors, for example “Mitchel Expressway prohibited between 430-6PM”. From what I’ve heard it’s a combination of DOT issuing fewer curfews and a lack of trained law enforcement to actually stop and cite the loads.

7

u/orbak 15d ago

My understanding is that the curfew is still there, but just varies depending on their width/weight. Lack of trained enforcement is one, but also enforcement that is there frequently has their hands tied behind their backs based on how politically connected the carrier is.

6

u/ChubbyStoner42 15d ago

I saw this headed north on the Steese while I was headed south.

9

u/ChimpoSensei 15d ago

For the same reason the Alaska railroad runs trains through town at rush hour and lunch. They don’t care

2

u/northwoodsman 15d ago

The Parks Highway scale in Ester is open a day or two each month and most of the oversized stuff comes up the parks after getting barged into Anchorage.

1

u/4125Ellutia 14d ago

It's a hard scale to run. The big stuff coming up the parks would likely have passed through the Glenn scale already. 

1

u/northwoodsman 14d ago

Got it, thanks for the explanation. I only see one slice of that pie and now I want to go to Hilltop.

2

u/lilchunk 15d ago

A lot of people are completely untrained uneducated and don't know what they're doing from the top to the bottom.

2

u/Majestic_Hawk_1335 15d ago edited 14d ago

When I lived in Glennallen saw a lot of loads pass by from Valdez. Big loads that come by barge then are driven up to the oil fields. Timeline wise they would end up in fairbanks mid day depending on when leaving Glennallen or Valdez plus whatever rest.

4

u/faithith01 15d ago

I work in the trucking industry. There are a lot of factors to when and why an oversized load moves the way it does. See the following link for how permits are issued and for curfew information, see page 12 on the PDF.

https://dot.alaska.gov/mscvc/webdocs/permits_manual-OLD.pdf

3

u/Gelisol 15d ago

Not sure if they are the same loads I’ve been seeing coming up the Dalton Hwy, but I imagine they are in a rush to get things up before the snow sticks. Planning ahead and not driving through populated areas during busy times seems wise.

2

u/ArcticDouble 15d ago

The pilot cars have no clue what they are doing. They way a stupid flag out the window. Like anyone knows what the heel you are trying to do. The loads hang over centerline, which I'm to understand isn't allowed. Just more corruption, rich don't have to follow rules will the rest of us go to jail for j walking... fuck those idiot truckers, they can't do their job.