Too many potatoes are bad for your weight
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• Operators involved in the seasonal transport of loose potatoes are being warned to watch their vehicle weights as the eight-week season gets under way. Roadside checks by Trading Standards and police in the West Country last year found a major problem with overweight trucks.
Dave Phillips, head of Cornwall Trading Standards, says: We intend to undertake a similar round of checks this year:" Of 35 trucks weighed last year en route from West Country farms to crisp production plants in northern England, 20 were found to be overweight.
The worst example was 5,400kg; an overload of 14.2%.
The overloading problem is mainly due to changes in transport methods, with a switch from traditional open-topped bulk trailers to conveyor loaded dry freight or refrigerated trailers.
Vehides are loaded in farmyards, generally some distance from a weighbridge, and weights are often guessed rather than verified before a vehicle sets off on its journey.
"The only safe way of gauging the weight of a product which varies according to size and weather conditions is to weigh it," says Phillips. Trucks on this work operate round the clock, frequently when weighbridges are shut.
But Phillips says: "It cannot be beyond the means of the haulage industry to arrange for local weighbridge facilities to be made available during this period of intense activity."