VI revised code cuts tolerance
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II Truck operators running legally could face overloading charges if the Vehicle Inspectorate sticks by its plans to tighten the axle weight tolerance at dynamic weighbridges.
The VI is about to publish a revised code of practice for weighing, and wants to use dynamic axle weigh pads at its weighbridge sites in static mode. This will restrict operators to the tighter tolerances allowed with static readings.
The change is designed to stop three-tonne vans overloading by up to 300kg while remaining within the legal tolerance of 150kg per axle on dynamic weighers-but NV operators could find themselves overloaded on previously legal weights.
Road Haulage Association technical manager Bob Stacey has asked the VI to review its policy before publishing the revised code of practice in the new year.
Under VI plans, drivers would be asked to move their vehicles onto dynamic weighers and come to a halt before weighing.
• Many tippers might be exempt from the new generation of roadside weight enforcement equipment because the VI has agreed they are difficult to weigh accurately with mobile weighers.
The Transport Research Laboratory identified accuracy problems when weighing tippers with compensating front axles; the VI says it will "not, therefore, weigh steel-suspended trailers with compensating axles using weigh pads".
This means the VI will not be using the latest portable weighers on most tippersthe most notoriously overloaded trucks in haulagewhile other vehicles face checks by the mobile weigh pads as they start to come on stream next year.
• The Freight Transport Association has asked the VI to investigate a number of cases in which individual axle weighings have totalled more than a vehicle's known overall weight.