NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- According to the I-Team, some trash trucks are establishing a dangerous trend.

Video: I-Team: Overloaded Trash Trucks Drive Illegally

The I-Team said it has evidence that some of the trucks hauling household trash to the landfill are overloaded almost every day of the year.

The federal government said a single truck can do the damage of 5,000 cars and that it’s so heavy, it might not be able to stop in time.

What the I-Team said it discovered was years and years of paperwork that caught the attention of the state, a U.S. Congressman and other law enforcement agencies.

The findings leave little doubt that the trash trucks can pose a danger on wheels, according to the I-Team.

Last month, cameras were rolling while state troopers randomly stopped trucks from the nation's largest garbage hauler, Mr. Bults Inc., which is under contract to carry tons of Nashville's trash.

“There's not a trooper in the middle Tennessee area that doesn't know who MBI is now,” said Tennessee Highway Patrol Capt. Steve Binkley.

Every MBI truck they weighed that day broke the law, and one broke the scale.

The I-Team said its findings could help stop the overloads.

“It irritates me. … Something like this you take personally,” Binkley said.

The I-Team sorted and analyzed nearly four years of one driver’s daily weigh tickets. That driver wanted to keep his identity hidden.

The I-team’s Demetria Kalodimos said it looked at every truckload of trash he hauled for MBI coming and going to the Middle Point Land Fill.

State and federal law said anything more than 80,000 pounds is too heavy to haul on a highway, but some of the weigh tickets show more.

The I-Team said that in 2003, not a single load was at legal weight. In 2004, there were only seven times when a load wasn't too heavy, in 2005 just 15 loads that didn't break the law, and in 2006, only seven trailer loads were at or less than 80,000 pounds, often because they ran out of trash.

The I-Team said every load in 2007 was overweight, but each one traveled down the road anyway.

“On this particular day here, you had five loads and all five were in excess of 95,000 pounds. And that's an absolute blatant violation of the weight laws, but to me this is certainly very incriminating,” Binkley said.

The I-Team said it found that the undercover MBI trucker was only legal 21 times in almost four years.

A second set of papers from the landfill scales reveals that overweight loads rolled right in.

“I don't know what the agreement between the land fill and MBI is, but it seems to me that they continue to take the loads,” Binkley said.

According to the landfill’s contract with Rutherford County, all state and federal laws for transportation are to be followed.

“Sometimes they were running 200 loads a day out of Nashville, and MBI is pretty much the only game in town hauling that stuff to the landfill, but for a few dollars, it’s not worth somebody’s life,” said former MBI truck driver Todd Turner.

According to the I-Team, the rules violations don’t cost the driver, and the driver gains. MBI pays them by the ton and adds bonuses for those who move a lot of cargo.

“I’ve carried up to 100-, 115,000 and that happens on a daily basis. Nobody ever goes out of there at 80,000 -- never,” said the undercover truck driver.

What about MBI? If it is caught, the fine for violation in Tennessee is $25, and that fee hasn't increased in 25 years.

But a heavy load can be taxed up to 5 cents per pound. Statewide last year, Tennessee fined heavy trucks about $1.5 million.

Penalties based on the papers that the I-Team obtained from a single MBI trucker could rival what's collected from everyone stopped statewide all of last year.

“Tennessee's not going to tolerate this kind of blatant activity when it comes to being overweight,” Binkley said.

The THP said it’s calling in other agencies, and Binkley said a combined enforcement effort should "get MBI's attention."

The I-Team tried contacting MBI for this story but got no response.

Heavy Trucks Can Damage Roads

Tennessee roads take a pounding from big trucks, but if the trucks are overloaded, the wear and tear multiplies.

“Heavier loads or heavier loads than expected or more loads than expected can definitely do damage to a pavement,” said Tennessee Department of Transportation pavement expert Brian Egan.

The federal highway system estimates that one truck weighing the maximum 80,000 pounds costs 8.7 cents in wear-and-tear on every mile of pavement.

Move the truck weight up to 100,000 pounds and the damage jumps to more than 15 cents of wear-and-tear per mile from a single heavy truck.

“We are assuming that the trucks are abiding by the legal load limits that are available and published by the Federal Highway Administration or other agencies,” Egan said.

“It's the only way to design a road?” Kalodimos asked.

“That's what we assume, correct,” Egan said.

“There's no scale to be crossed. … And these trucks are weighing in at 90- to 100,000 pounds, which is 20-, 30-, 40,000 pounds overweight. It’s crazy,” Turner said.

The MBI trucks that did cross a scale failed as often as they passed in the last two years.

State records show 114 MBI trucks were inspected in that time and only 10 of those rigs got the most thorough checks.

Almost 50 percent of the time, MBI trucks weighed too much.

Just in the last few weeks, when they've been targeted, the state said MBI has shown no improvement.

“The drivers we have stopped since then are telling us, ‘Well you got me.’ It's the same story we heard the very first day. If it were me, and I knew I was being looked at very closely, I knew my drivers and trucks were subject to be inspected, I would be doing all that I could to stay under the radar, to stay out of the spotlight,” Binkley said.

The weight of a truck at regulation weight is concerning enough, but add on the extra weight, and you add more danger.

“It takes so much space to stop a truck just at the regular normal gross vehicle weight, which is 80,000 pounds. … People just don't realize, especially in their cars, how hard it is to stop a truck. It’s harder to stop for one by far because you’re carrying so much weight that it taxes the breaks,” Turner said.

Also, the size of the Middle Point Land Fill and its need for expansion is based on how many truckloads of trash are accepted every year.

If those loads are really much larger than what's been projected, how long before the land fill is full?