Avoid Overweight Truck Issues

Oct 27, 2022 - 2 years ago

Trucks are governed by numerous local, provincial/state, and federal laws, which dictate truck weight limits, the weight distribution of trucks, and the weight on each axle and each tire.

Vocational trucks that transport bulk materials or loose materials are at risk of exceeding a province’s or state’s weight regulations when the driver accepts a load and doesn’t know its weight. This includes Ro-Ros (roll on, roll off-styled garbage trucks), vacuum trucks, rock trucks, water trucks, soil trucks, and others.

When trucks operate overweight, there can be regulatory, truck health, and safety issues that come into play.

Regulatory issues
It is illegal in every province and state to operate an overweight vehicle.

If a police officer or government weigh station employee determines a truck to be overweight, it could be detained until the vehicle until the truck no longer exceeds the weight limit and the company will face fines.

Repeated offences can lead to the loss of the driver’s commercial driver’s license (CDL).

Truck health issues
Overweight trucks cause extra stress and pressures on certain components, which can lead to mechanical issues, such as overheated tires and potential blowouts, overheated or failed brakes, and failed axles.

Even if parts don’t fail, they will wear out more quickly, which will eat away at any benefits of hauling heavier loads.

Risk/safety issues
And, of course, if the truck malfunctions during operation, it could cause an accident.

Even if no part completely fails while driving, some components, such as brakes, will be less effective, translating into longer stopping distances.

Overweight trucks are also more difficult to control and increasing tipping hazards when taking corners or when driving during high winds.

Other issues
Overweight trucks cause excess greater damage on roads and highways, causing greater road/highway repair costs.

Also, if a truck driver is forced by a police officer or weigh station employee to decrease a truck’s load before carrying on, your shipment will be delayed. This could cause a negative impact on your customer relationship, cause you to miss another hauling opportunity, and can damage your reputation, thereby hurting your ability to get new clients.

Avoid costly mistakes
In order to avoid, these issues, vocational truck drivers should invest in an onboard truck weighing system.
Onboard truck scales weigh a truck’s payload and are used in applications with variable payloads that can’t easily be determined and there is a potential to be overloaded, such as hauling logs, rocks, dirt, sand, water, etc.

When the sensors detect the payload has exceeded a weight that had been pre-programmed into the onboard truck scale, which will be the truck’s maximum payload, audible and visual signals alert the driver the truck is overloaded.

Maximizing loads and loading efficiency
The new generation BRT5 Series 3 scale from TrackWeight is the result of more than 20 years of research aimed at always optimizing truck loads more efficiently. It is more precise (0 ± 1 per cent accuracy) than previous generations, is easier to install, features a more sophisticated and compact design, is made of ultra-tough components, and the components are under a three-year limited warranty.

“All TrackWeight products undergo rigorous testing to confirm their durability and reliability under all usage conditions,” says Marc Lefebvre, President, RMT—the Canadian distributor for TrackWeight. “Because TrackWeight understands the job site conditions of trucks, they have put together a really durable and long-lasting product, which is how they can guarantee parts for three years.”

The scale is customizable to the type of truck or trailer (tractor trailer, two-axle, three-axle, four-axle and bi-train) and sensors are available for various suspension types (pneumatic, springs, mechanical or inverted blades).

Not only is the BRT5 Series 3 accurate, but it is also fast; its data acquisition box takes thousands of weight readings per second on truck suspensions and analyzes them with maximum precision for display on the BRT5 dashboard monitor, which displays the total load, axle load, overload alerts, date, time, and truck profile. All load information is displayed on the in-cab, four-inch monitor in real time, in either imperial or metric, in either English or French.

Or, load information can be accessed via a cell phone or tablet combined with the use of TrackWeight’s mobile app—TrackMobile. This allows the loader operator to see in real time how much weight is being put into the truck and onto each axle or axle set.

With TrackMobile, you never lose sight of the weight,” says Lefebvre. “This allows people to verify information, such as how many logs were loaded and how many trips were made, using the load information provided by TrackWeight, which helps with logistics and cost verification. TrackMobile is your most reliable loading assistant.”

Source: TrackWeight