I finally received my permits via fax for this 102,000 lbs load and was just about to pull out of the truckstop when I got a call from dispatch asking if I had put tires chains on my truck for this trip. I reminded him that when I asked yesterday about when the chain laws went into effect he had told me the 15th so I didn't bother grabbing any.
He made a couple of calls and found that he had misinformed me and that the chain laws actually went into effect on the 1st. Wonderful. The fines in Washington state for not carrying chains are pretty steep.
He told me to just sit tight here and that one of our other drivers was about to leave the yard and would bring some chains to myself and another of our drivers who is parked in another truckstop about 30 miles from here.
We never actually use the tire chains. If conditions require chaining up we simply park and wait for the road to clear. But WA, CO, and a few other states require us to have them on our trucks whether we actually plan to use them or not. Never mind the fact that it would be illegal to chain up when hauling an oversized load.
It's very hard to keep track of all of these laws, when they go into effect, and when they expire, and they often change from one year to the next. We're all pretty sure they went into effect on the 15th last year, but we've all slept since then and none of us are 100% sure about that.
Worst case I could have stopped at a truckstop in Wyoming and rented chains for the trip, returning them on my way back, but that does cost money so it makes sense to just wait here for our other driver to show up. I figure she'll be along in three or four hours, at which point I'll be about ready to hit the sack anyway so I won't be moving on until morning.
It's always something.