Weigh Station Woes

Part of every day’s work for truck drivers is entering, and hopefully, exiting weigh stations. Slowing down and crawling through a weigh station costs you money in fuel and time lost. Time is never on the side of carriers hauling freight. Pickups and deliveries are ever on stricter time schedules. You need to trim wait times for detention waiting to load and unload. Unfortunately, the driver and carrier are always at the mercy of shippers and receivers.

So, you trim times throughout each day whenever and wherever you are able, to help get to your delivery appointment on time. ELDs save time as the driver no longer needs to struggle with writing longhand in a paper log while the Electric Logging Device takes away that time consuming work. But weigh stations are fixtures in various jurisdictions which often have multiple weigh facilities. Each and every open weigh station is a costly, parasitic delay to a driver’s trip and a carrier’s income.

Of course, all weigh stations also act as inspection centers where on any given day an inspection may be ordered and a fault may be found on a truck, be it an overweight infraction or a maintenance issue that can put your truck and driver out of service until rectified and any penalty satisfied with payment. Often the truck may be searched for contraband or alcohol. If any such are discovered, it means a greater delay and penalty. And of course, the carrier is considered responsible for the actions of their drivers and that can adversely affect safety scores and result in increased scrutiny and higher insurance premiums. Permits and documents are also likely to be examined.

It’s important to remind your drivers from time to time on restrictions regarding weigh stations to avoid unnecessary delays and penalties at those installations. Delays and fines affect your bottom line, whether an owner/operator or fleet.

The answer to weigh station woes is available now in weigh station bypass systems. If you are considering a bypass system for your truck or trucks, first list the lanes your trucks run most often and locate all weigh stations on those routes. Use a bypass system map to know which routes have bypass technology to make sure that system will save you time and money by bypassing those weigh stations.