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Tipping the scales: weighing up options

COR SPECIAL: Minimising risk under COR reforms will mean keeping an eye on vehicle weights

 

On October 1, the new Chain of Responsibility (COR) provisions associated with Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) legislation come into effect. This will have far-reaching implications for the road transport industry and organisations with road transport supply chains.

Existing obligations have been reformulated as primary duties, and any business and individual who is involved in the road transport supply chain now has a primary duty of care to ensure the safety of road transport operations, including operations outside of their direct control, within their supply chain.

In practical terms, the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) says this primary duty represents an obligation to eliminate or minimise potential harm or loss by doing all that is reasonably practicable to ensure safety.

Because the new COR provisions focus on managing risk, all parties in the road transport supply chain must take a broader and more targeted risk assessment benchmarked against new industry codes of practice, and develop and implement tailored mitigating and remedial safety measures to discharge their primary duty of care. This means that organisations can proactively reduce risks related to their transport tasks, rather than reacting when there’s a possible breach of the law. It also means ensuring that supply chain activities are considered through risk assessments and systems to manage safety.

For these reasons, enforcement agencies, such as VicRoads, now have greater powers to investigate possible breaches of the HVNL. To avoid penalties, which can include prison sentences in serious cases, all parties within the road transport supply chain must ensure that they have safety management systems in place to ensure heavy vehicle safety.

Considering that heavy vehicle overloading and unequal load distribution are two of the chief safety risks in any road transport operation – being that they are a major cause of accidents, injuries, and fatalities – this article reviews how enforcement agencies assess these breaches and the mass management controls that road transport organisations companies can include in their safety regime to prevent breaches.

AXLE GROUP WEIGHT

Some time ago enforcement agencies moved away from measuring the maximum regulatory mass of the vehicle to capturing the weight of axle groups (rather than individual axles) and then summing these weights. This approach enables both load and load distribution data to be captured.

An axle group can be any combination of single, twin, tri, or quad axles. Depending how the axle group is constructed, errors can occur if weighing individual axles in an axle group because of load redistribution. This is why load limits described in all data sheets relating to heavy vehicles show axle group weights and not individual axle weights, and they are policed accordingly.

While most readers are familiar with weighbridges, which are suitable for trade-use where the weight of product will determine a charge, most organisations require a system that will be used as a control point for safety and compliance, rather than trade purposes.

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Here is a brief description of five of the weighing systems.

WEIGHBRIDGES

Weighbridges are the most accurate vehicle weighing system available, because all axle groups for the vehicle and trailers are on the same plane and weighed at the same time. They are ideal for trade-approved applications where invoices are raised on payloads, and high intensity operations when throughput is concentrated at certain times of the day. 

STATIC AXLE WEIGHERS

Ideal for weighing single individual axle groups, static axle weighers are typically 4m long by 3m wide, and are installed in a pit so the deck is at ground level. To record weights for each axle group on a static axle weigher, the truck is driven across the weigher, stopping in the correct position for each axle group. This means that the time taken to weigh all axle groups is longer when compared to a weighbridge. This system can be installed with minimal excavation work.

LOW PROFILE AXLE WEIGHERS

Low profile axle (LPAX) weighers are designed for weighing single axle groups. The standalone unit can be up to 65mm above ground, or in a 65mm shallow recess. Weighing occurs on two 3.6m-long tracks that enable the weight of each axle group to be captured efficiently.  LPAX weighers require the least amount of siteworks for installation and use, and are modular, lightweight, easily transportable, and fully portable, without compromising reliability or accuracy.

WEIGH-IN-MOTION SYSTEMS

Weigh-in-motion (WIM) systems typically consist of a platform – measuring 7.3m by 3m – supported by four loadcells that capture and record the weight readings of each individual axle group. Unlike static weighbridges or axle scales, WIM systems don’t require vehicles to stop for weighing. Operators simply drive over the weighbridge steadily at a reduced speed of up to 5km/h. This makes the weighing process more efficient, eliminating unnecessary delays and downtime.

ONBOARD OVERLOAD PROTECTION SYSTEMS

As the name suggests, onboard overload and payload control systems are installed directly onboard vehicles. They are usually fitted to a vehicle’s and/or trailer’s suspension system. This means that onboard systems can be used quite effectively for both static and dynamic weighing applications. Onboard systems are available in many different configurations, from simple overload detection/warning devices, through to full legal for trade solutions.

All the aforementioned instruments are essential aids to equal load distribution monitoring, providing drivers with the knowledge they need and security they deserve whilst keeping operations compliant with NHVR COR requirements, by taking advantage of improving technology.

Considering the range of static and dynamic vehicle weighing systems that are available to the industry, there is really no reason why any owner, operator, or organisation should leave the safe and legal loading of their vehicles to guesswork.

Furthermore, integrating vehicle weighing solutions not only improves the safety of transport activities, but has also been shown to enable road transport organisations to realise a host of other benefits, such as: boosting operating efficiencies; ensuring optimum allocation of resources; and sharing information with supply chain partners.

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