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Sensor technology is set to snare overloaded trucks
Page 14
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Dylan Gray takes a look at Vosa's weigh-in-motion sensors (/1/111/S)
ls the agency puts them to good use on the M25.
:OMMERCIAL MOTOR was wited to see Vosa's weigh-inlotion sensors (WIMS) in action t its site near Leatherhead,Surrey n the M25.
The WIMS were set up along le clockwise carriage of the M25 efore Vosa's weighbridge; the ;mom comprise of piezoelectric rips embedded into the road irface. Working in conjunction ith cameras this technology tablesVosa toascertain the weight [ a vehicle, recorded as individual de weights. It also produces a side tage of thevehicle being weighed, )mplete with an infrared image of le number plate.
This data is then matched against osa'sdatabase.This will reveal the ;hicle's 'operator compliance risk score' and highlight whether the truck has previously been spotted running overweight.
When an overweight vehicle is spotted by WIMS the Vosa operator radios through to a patrol vehicle to pull it over. A spokeswoman reports:"We have three vehicles at this site which means we can pull over roughly four trucks per hour.
About half the trucks pulled over are foreign-registered so Vosa is ready for communication problems:-We have phrase books but can also call a number at any time which provides translating services."
It seems that foreign trucks are particularly prone to drive-axle overloads while UK vehicles are more likely to be caught with gross overloads. This is due to the fact that foreign operators are more likely to have drawbar rigs than their UK counterparts.
WIMS sites are now in action at Leatherhead, Perry Bar and Dartford, and 11 more are in the pipeline. Vosa head of enforcement Kevin Rooney says: "By the end of next financial year all sites should be finished." And he offers a word of warning to drivers:" You can't get around the sensors on the hard shoulder."