Double weighing axle problem
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Police required my artic to be weighed at a public weighbridge which was too long for the drive axle to be weighed on its own.
The front axle was weighed and then both axles of the tractor unit. The first weight was then deducted from the second to produce the drive axle weight. The artic's gross weight was in order.
I have received a summons for excess weight of 550kg on the 10.5-tonne drive axle.
Was the way of weighing the vehicle legal?
A It appears you have grounds for defending the charge on the inaccuracy of double-weighing and on the law prohibiting multiple weighing which came into operation last year.
The way of finding a weight for the drive axle amounts to a double-weighing because the weight could not be obtained by a single weigh.
Double weighing is only reasonably accurate where the land on the approaches to the weighbridge is level with the weighbridge plate. Any difference in the levels causes a transfer of weight and makes the calculations inaccurate.
The Department of Transport has published a Code of Practice for Conventional Weighbridges. Paragraph 4 states: "Double weighing will be carried out only by a Trading Standards Officer whose professional qualifications and experience will enable him to give expert evidence as to the accuracy of this weighing procedure; or by a duly authorised officer at sites which have been examined and approved as suitable for double weighing by the local Trading Standards Officer, and who will, if necessary, be available to give expert evidence in court."
You should challenge the police officer about the weighbridge site and ask him to explain how he arrived at a figure for the drive axle weight. It will then emerge that it was a double weighing.
Point out that Regulation 4(7) of the Weighing Equipment (Non-automatic Weighing Machines) Regulations 1988 states that from 1 September 1991 a person must not use for trade any non-automatic weighing machine for the purpose of multiple weighing.
A weighbridge is non-automatic because a person has to put the vehicle on the weighing platform.
Section 7 of the Weights and Measures Act 1985 states that, besides weighbridges used for normal business transactions, a public weighbridge is regarded as being used for trade.
Therefore, the ban on multiple weighing applies to (a) weighbridges normally used for business transactions and (b) public weighbridges.