Guides: truck weight limits & axle compliance

The interprovincial MOU is the baseline — provinces add their own rules on top. What to know about Ontario SPIF vehicles, Quebec spring-thaw restrictions, British Columbia engine-power requirements, and Alberta.

A load that is legal in Canada can be illegal in the United States, and vice versa. The exact differences in axle and gross limits, units, and the bridge formula — with a worked cross-border example.

How Canada regulates truck axle and gross weights — the interprovincial MOU limits in kilograms, why there is no federal bridge formula, and the exact numbers for a 5- and 6-axle tractor-semitrailer.

A practical weight-compliance checklist for dispatchers and 3PLs: what to verify before booking, before loading, and after scaling — plus how to make it systematic.

Where freight sits in a 53-foot trailer decides your axle weights. Practical placement rules, the nose-vs-tail trade-off, and how to plan distribution before loading.

A CAT scale ticket shows steer, drive, trailer axle weights and gross. What each number should be, the limits to compare against, and the fix when one is over.

Axle weights are a lever problem: the load's centre of gravity splits weight between supports. The formulas, a worked example, and how to predict axle weight before loading.

Slide tandems back to take weight off the trailer axles, forward for the reverse. How much weight per hole, the legal limits that constrain you, and how to compute the exact slide.

Overweight truck fines range from hundreds to $10,000+, often per pound over. The bigger costs: out-of-service time, reloading, missed windows and liability.

The federal truck weight limits on the Interstate: 20,000 lb single axle, 34,000 lb tandem, 80,000 lb gross — plus the bridge formula, and where state limits differ.