Companies in industries such as logistics and construction which rely on the extensive use of commercial-grade vehicles must ensure all weighing is completed using high quality, thoroughly calibrated equipment to obtain accurate measurements.
There are a huge number of reasons as to why accurate weighing is crucial in the vehicle industry and one of these is to protect parties involved in either B2B or B2C transactions.
Fair Trade
The price of many products is determined by the item’s weight and, therefore, providing customers with precise and honest measurements will help to protect them from being inadvertently mis-sold.
Providing customers with the correct quantity of a given product will also prevent complaints from being made.
This is hugely important as poor customer satisfaction can severely damage both your company’s brand and financial performance as a result.
“Word of mouth marketing” is still the most powerful influencer on most buyers’ decision making process so it’s crucial to look after your customers in order to retain long term business opportunities.
Maintaining your integrity by providing accurately weighted goods and avoiding the rounding of figures will resonate with other members of the industry and the trust you earn from this will be invaluable.
Avoid Fines
Companies can easily incur substantial fines from allowing drivers to use overloaded or unbalanced vehicles.
These penalties have been established in order to protect drivers as excessive or unevenly distributed weight can render vehicles incredibly difficult to manoeuvre safely and this can increase the likelihood of crashes occurring.
Furthermore, ensuring your vehicle’s weight remains within legislative constraints prevents roads from being subjected to undue damage as a result of extreme loads.
In the UK, companies which utilise vehicles overweight by 30% or more can even be subject to legal action and court summons which may result in even greater fines.
Efficiency and Damage Prevention
Ensuring your vehicles are moderately weighted and balanced on each axle will help to improve their fuel economy which, given the amount of fuel used, will save companies considerable amounts of money in the long run.
This will become increasingly advantageous for organisations running large fleets of vehicles such as transport and logistics companies where fuel is often one of the main overheads.
Monitoring and correcting your vehicle’s weight also prevents unnecessary damage from occurring.
Excessive weight can cause mechanical components such as drive shafts and axles to be exposed to intolerable levels of pressure and may result in parts breaking.
When this occurs, parts must be replaced and this will involve paying fees for both the replacement of the part itself and the associated labour costs.
Furthermore, extreme damage may even force vehicles to be withdrawn from service for extended periods of time and this can entail the loss of additional profit until they are able to be used safely again.
Time Saving and Data Use
Investing in the purchase or hire of high quality weighing equipment will enable you reduce the time associated with weighing your vehicles and this will allow drivers to return to their daily duties much quicker.
This is another aspect which larger organisations will benefit from considerably as they will typically require more regular use of weighbridges and other equipment.
Modern weighing machinery also enables companies to transfer and store specific data regarding their vehicles which can be used later in support of administrative and forecasting endeavours.
Solent Scales are specialists in industrial weighing equipment and provide a wide range of services including supply, service, calibration, repair and hire.