Letter

‘Onboard weighing devices make good commercial sense’
I refer to the recent letter by Kevin Martin ‘Big companies abused the overload tolerance’ (FTW September 15, 2006). May I defend the position of those who are using onboard weighing to ensure that every load will be really profitable. Their drivers are able to watch the axle weights building up to the maximum limits set. After all, they are in business to make the best profits possible. Let’s take as an example a haulier who makes 20% profit from his loads. If his driver does not have onboard weighing, to be safe he will probably only load up to 95% of a full load. He has no means of knowing the exact weights on the axles. So he leaves 5% of the total load behind. But that is 25% of his profit for that load lost before the driver even switches on. To explain – the truck’s running costs will be the same with only 95% loaded, so the 5% that was not earned all comes off the 20% the owner had hoped to earn. This cuts his earnings by a quarter. This is why so many operators are now going for onboard weighing. They simply want all their profit loaded on with every load. Who wouldn’t? This should explain to your readers why so many hauliers use onboard weighing. It’s not to cheat, but to live. There is no intention to argue with Kevin – simply to provide an explanation for the reasons for weighing while actually loading. Paul Chappé, Loadtech, Johannesburg.