Designed to measure heavy items at large weight intervals that is the importance of weighbridge, a weighbridge is most commonly used for weighing large vehicles such as trucks or rail containers or for checking incoming and outgoing vehicles. Used in industries such as mining and quarries, weighbridges have electronic monitors that display the weight of the vehicle to gain accurate measurements of the goods they contain. Other industries that use weighbridges are those where bulk movement occurs including iron and steel, agriculture, forestry, and construction. Through the help of the weighbridge, businesses and companies can buy or sell goods by charging customers by the weight of load supplied or delivered, and determine freight costs or other charges based on weight.

The function of the weighbridge is pretty straightforward, but the technology required to achieve the result is highly accurate, precise and innovative. Your weighbridge has the ability to give you a wealth of information to help your business monitor costs and expenses, control wastage and improve areas that need efficiencies which is why knowing how it works and getting the accuracy and reliability of a weighbridge is highly important. Inaccurate weighing could cause your business profit to dwindle or it could also cause loss of customers due to overcharging.

The Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) provides General Mass Limits (GML), Concessional Mass Limits (CML) and Higher Mass Limits (HML) for heavy vehicles operating on the national road network to avoid issues and accidents caused by overloading. According to HVNL, the sheet below summarises the conditions for operating general access and restricted access vehicles, relating to axle mass and configurations. High productivity vehicles, such as B-doubles and HML vehicles are important to the efficiency of the freight task in Australia. The larger capacity of these vehicles also reduces the number of vehicles required to transport a given amount of freight.

NOTE: The information given in the charts below is a guide only and is subject to change at any time without notice. Source: Roads and Traffic Authority

Mass Limits for Standard Vehicles Self Propelled Vehicles

Mass Limits for Trailers

How Will A Weighbridge Help Me?

A high-quality weighbridge is indeed an investment as the importance of a well-functioning weighbridge will highly affect your business operations. Most weighbridge operators and owners are aware that overloaded vehicles are a safety risk and the fines issued for overloading can be seriously damaging to your business, but what most of them don’t know is that overloading can also increase the wear and tear of vehicles, thus shortening their lives. Also, imagine how a weighbridge can prevent vehicle underloading, helping your business avoid lessened productivity whenever your trucks and vehicles leave your warehouse at less than full capacity. This is where weighbridge comes to the rescue- saving you loads of money by avoiding overloading (and underloading).

If your business owns a weighbridge that is used mainly for trade, then you must ensure that approval of the NMI has been made on your type of weighbridge, verification of your weighbridge has been done by a servicing licensee who will also check your weighbridge for repair or adjustment, operators are correctly and properly trained to conduct weight readings and that your weighbridge is in an excellent, working condition. It is important to know that for every equipment used for trade, it is the weighbridge owner who is responsible for ensuring that the Weights & Measures Act 1985 is followed. Failure to comply with these rules and regulations could lead to serious matters, such as prosecution. If you’re lucky, the worst scenario would be a memo to shut down operations until the weighbridge for trade use is repaired, re-calibrated and re-verified. But this could damage your business financially.

Questions About Weighbridges?

Maximize your business operations and workforce productivity with the leading supplier of robust packaging and bulk handling equipment, Australian Weighing Equipment or The AWE Group. The AWE Group is the Top Weighing Equipment Technicians in Australia, and we consider the cost of equipment and machinery as an investment for your business’ future. Give us a call:

Sydney Office and NSW Office (1 300 044 044)

Queensland Office (07 3423 1388)