VI starts trials with mobile weighbridges
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by Karen Miles • The likelihood of overloaded lorries being caught by surprise checks has increased dramatically. Early trials show that mobile weighbridges can produce "astonishingly accurate" results; now the Vehicle Inspectorate plans to launch national trials in the spring.
After years of criticism over the accuracy of mobile weighers from hauliers' defence lawyers, a one-day test at Kettering, Northants has shown that new designs can produce variances of as little as 50kg on the total weight of the largest vehicles. The variance allowed for legal purposes on fixed dynamic weighers is up to 150kg per axle, equating to a maximum total of 900kg for a six-axle vehicle.
"When we checked their readings through repeated weighings and comparable weighings on static sites we found the mobile weighers astonishingly accurate," says Alan Campbell, roadworthiness and weighing scheme manager at the VI. "I think there is a future for them with us," he adds. The next trials will be open to observers from the Road Haulage Association and Freight Transport Association. If successful, they will lead to the nationwide use of around 12 sets of mobile weighers.
Eventually the VI wants to carry out surprise roadside checks with mobile weighers for up to 20% of its total weighings. The remaining 80% will continue to take place at the organisation's 70-odd fixed weighbridges. At current weighing levels that would mean around 15,000 weighings a year conducted on mobile pads. However, progress is being held up while the VI, trading standards and the Department of Transport finalise a code of practice for their use, allowing the results of mobile weighers to be accepted as evidence in court.