``You know right away they're overweight when they say they don't have a bill of lading,'' said Ward, who estimated the truck was at least 10,000 pounds over the 80,000-pound limit. ``I know he's got it. He just doesn't want to show it to me because he's really overweight.''
When Ward reported this exchange to two of his early-morning counterparts, solicitor Mike Sellers and Police Chief Arnold Conaline, Sellers shook his head.
``Ninety-thousand pounds,'' Sellers said, stunned and angry. ``Geez. These are the things we're talking about.''
Township officials conducted a pair of predawn rousts yesterday and Monday, inspecting the line of trash trucks that sat outside the local landfill before the facility opened, and stopping some trucks on Tyburn Road.
The infrequent inspections discourage drivers from flouting trucking laws and provide anecdotal ammunition township officials can give the county, which is considering whether to let the township require a $100 license for every truck that enters Falls.
Township officials say such a fee would allow them to monitor trucks regularly for violations. The county's Solid Waste Advisory Committee will convene next month to discuss the issue.
Many of the violations discovered Monday and yesterday were small: slightly chipped tires, out-of-date licenses, missing spare tires and torn tarps. But other problems included overweight trucks, failure to list the trucks' contents, and the transport of prohibited waste.
``For a vast majority of these trucks, we have no idea what they're hauling or how safe the trucks are,'' Sellers said.
