What is mobile weighing?
Professional Mobile Weighing Companies: What they do, and what to expect from your appointment.
So, what does a professional mobile weighing company do? We will explain the ins and outs, what you should be getting for your money and things to look out for to ensure you get the best out of an appointment. We will explain to you the difference between mobile scales vs weigh bridges and why professional mobile weighing businesses are more effective than weigh bridges.
There is a lot of ‘chatter’ within the caravanning community around what professional mobile weighing companies are charging for appointments. The chatter normally stops at pricing rather than the service they are providing and doesn’t look at specific businesses, the old saying ‘poor man pays twice’ really comes into effect for some consumers. What it comes down to in the end is how serious they are; is this their full-time profession or a ‘side hustle’, are their intensions for a positive result genuine and what service are these companies providing during their appointments. Quite often it is like comparing apples with carrots.
This article will provide you (the consumer) with the information required to understand a ‘professional’ weighing company from someone just doing it for petty cash, and arms you with the questions to ask weighing companies prior to booking an appointment with them. We are looking out for you!
What should you expect out of a mobile weighing appointment?
If you are being charged hundreds of dollars to get your vehicle and caravan weighed in under 1 hour, you are probably better off going to a weigh bridge.
At a minimum it should take between 1 to 1.5 hours to check ALL the combination’s weights, explain what they mean and remove and/or reshuffle weight around your caravan to assist you having a safe and legally compliant combination. Then, depending on what other service and education you receive your appointment can go for longer.
For the most reliable results possible, a weigh should be conducted on a flat, level, concrete or hot pour tar surface and uneven rocky/loose gravel surfaces should be avoided. We personally will never weigh on surfaces with a slope or camber over 2 degrees and we will never weigh on dirt, grass or gravel surfaces.
Our appointments run for approximately 2 hours. The first half of the appointment focuses on the actual weighing. When assessing the vehicle, we look at the GVM (gross vehicle mass), GCM (gross combination mass), front and rear axle weights, braked towing capacity, maximum tow ball download and side to side balance. We also find out what the impact is on the front and rear axles when our clients hitch the van to their vehicle so as they make changes to their tow ball weight they can monitor the flow on effect to the tow vehicle.
When assessing the caravan, we look at the GTM (gross trailer mass), ATM (aggregate trailer mass), group axle weight rating, side to side balance and tow ball mass. We also check the compliance plates for any common errors and number plate height and visibility.
In the second half of our appointment, we look at our clients packing and load distribution and carry out an educational demonstration of the relationship between tow ball weight and load distribution specific to their van and set up. We work with them to build a packing guide, specific to their combination, for them to take home so as they add, remove or move items around their van they will always be able to keep track of how heavy their tow ball, GTM and ATM are. We want our clients to leave us being experts of their combination and give them the tools so they can continually monitor their combination and feel confident in knowing how heavy they always are. We encourage our clients to move weight around the caravan in the appointment while on the scales as this shows them firsthand how the weight is spread between the tow ball, which effects the vehicle, and the axles.
If our clients are overweight, we will work them to try and resolved the issues within the appointment and arm them with the knowledge on how to fix it once at home. We will also discuss other options they may have access to such as but not limited to; GVM/GCM upgrades, weight distribution hitches and upgrades to the caravans compliance plate.
Mobile Scales Vs Fixed Weighbridge.
It should be noted that we encourage travellers to use weigh bridges because any weigh is a step in the right direction when it comes to road safety.
We have discussed this topic in depth with Newcastle Weighing Services (NWS NuWeigh), a reputable retail/commercial weighing company who sells, installs and maintains weigh bridges and mobile weighing equipment. NWS have the facts and have verified that their/our mobile scales are 20 times more accurate than any truck weigh bridge. This means at a minimum, public truck weigh bridges measure weight in increments of 20kg, and as the load cell capacity increases ie. 30 tonne, 80 tonne, 100 tonne etc. so does the incremental increases.
Our mobile scales and tow ball scale are calibrated yearly by a NATA accredited company and are capable of measuring to the kilogram (kg). Before driving a vehicle or caravan and when we move our scales from location to location, we ensure the scales are reading correctly by applying a 10kg weight to each pad and repeat when calibrating our tow ball scale.
The way in which you weigh your caravan on a weighbridge will also dictate what reading you receive. A weighbridge operator will generally require all occupants to leave the vehicle during the weigh. If this is the case, please ensure you add the weight of all passengers to the overall GVM. You will then have to distribute the passengers weight between the front and rear axle’s to determine the correct axle weights. Generally speaking, we see the passengers weight in the front seats be distributed approximately 50% to the front axle and 50% the rear axle. You would have the determine the distribution from the middle/back seats depending on where the passengers sit between both axles. Please read our experimental blog on weigh bridges vs calibrated tow ball scales for more information on the differences in taking tow ball weights which will impact the tow ball weight you receive on a weighbridge. https://www.auswideweighing.com.au/blog/towballweights
It’s important to note that a weighbridge will only give you figures. You will not receive any explanations, education or demonstrations, especially in regards load distribution and information specific to your combination, and in general, many drivers using a weighbridge by themselves may be unfamiliar with some of the physics involved when weighing and packing a combination.
Having 4 weigh pads enables us to weigh each individual wheel which also gives us your side to side (drivers to passenger) balance. A weighbridge is not usually capable of getting these readings. I would like to point out that your side-to-side balance is not a legal requirement, but we consider it to be a massive safety factor with regards to caravan balance and vehicle balance.
WE ENCOURAGE travellers to use weigh bridges for regular checks, not everyone has the access to a mobile weigh company and we believe anyone trying to ensure they are underweight is doing a good thing. Just know that there will be a degree of discrepancy and it may be the difference of being under or over if you are very close to your limits.
Our Business - Education, Costings & Appointment Information.
We want to be open & transparent about our business and will be sharing information specific to our mobile weighing business to help you understand more about service & pricing etc. There are currently no mobile weighing training courses provided by industry specific registered training organisations (RTO’s), so unless a new business has outsourced training from a reputable weighing business or have been in the automotive industry for some time you can assume they have not had any formal training. When we started our business, we wanted to ensure we were giving our customers the most professional and knowledgeable service possible, so we enlisted one of Australia’s most reputable weighing companies to provide us with training.
These are the costings of our weighing business:
Our professional weighing equipment: RRP $24,500 + GST.
Yearly calibration costs: $600+.
5 day weighing training course: $5000.
All other costs to set up the business (uniforms, signage, electrical items etc.): $7000.
Ongoing business costs (tax, fuel, insurances, vehicle maintenance, phones etc.): $25,000 plus. Per Annum,
Wages for 2 employees (tax, superannuation etc.)
The time it takes from the initial booking to job completion:
Time to book an appointment, plus emails and administration: 30 minutes to 45 minutes - this includes phone calls, a detailed run through of the appointment and answering questions about our service, emailing and administration.
Travel to and from appointments: 30 minutes to 6 hours return. Being mobile we have travelled upwards of 3 hours each way for clients. We try and conduct ‘weigh days’ in locations outside of 50kms from us with the aim to have multiple appointments to alleviate the need to charge a travel fee.
Time it takes to complete the appointment, including set up and packing away: 2 to 3 hours. Depending on the complexity of the weigh, and issues that have arisen and questions asked/answered.
Reporting and administration: 30 minutes (per appointment) to input data, generate reports and email to client. It should be noted that we provide our clients with a highly detailed email with a 4-page weight report attached and other weight and packing related materials for them to use at home.
No charge, follow up emails and ongoing service (phone calls, zooms, emails etc.) – we offer unlimited calls and emails. Our service offers updated reports if you upgrade your GVM and/or GCM, caravan compliance plates, or you upgrade your vehicle type or caravan type.
Minimum time: 3.5hrs.
Maximum time: 5hrs+ depending on location of the appointment and after service follow up.
Consequently, we charge $350 for a tow vehicle plus caravan weighing appointment. This is at a location that is suitable for weighing and convenient to our client.
What you receive from our appointment:
• Expert and professional weighing/weight distribution knowledge by experienced AusWide Weighing Services staff,
• A highly detailed 4-page weight report (that is easy to read), displaying your live weights against your compliance limits, as well as recapping important information that we spoke about in the appointment,
• A service dedicated to educating you on your combination. We provide you with tools to use at home which include:
A packing guide relevant to your caravan/trailer, and
A packing template used to track your contents in and out of the van which helps you keep track of your weights once you get home. This will help ensure you do not have to be re-weighed by us or any other weighing company, unless major changes are made to your vehicles or weights.
• Extensive professional research and assistance in retrieving the relevant compliance information ie. GVM, axle weights etc. if the compliance information is not displayed on the vehicle or trailer.
• Post appointment assistance and support if required (call, email, zoom).
This is an example of what we provide in our appointments. We know other professional weighing companies offer similar services. We always recommend speaking with whoever you are interested in using to weigh your combination to get a feel for the service they provide, so you can make an informed decision as to whether they are offering everything you are after. Please ask questions!
Conclusion
Using professional weighing companies are much more effective than using a weighbridge and you receive more information and education. Weigh bridges are a great guide, but it should be noted that they are designed to weigh much larger vehicles and do not provide everything travellers need to understand their combinations. There are more and more mobile weigh companies popping up so we would always encourage you to research and investigate the weighing company you are looking at using before using their service and don’t forget to ask questions about their services:
What is the service they offer and what does it include? Do they do any extra reporting and recommendations or just give the print out from the computer.
How long do their appointments go for? Remembering that you can not weigh a tow vehicle ad caravan combination and deliver all of the information in 1 hour.
What experience do they have?
How long have they been operating? if only started, have they received any training or have any industry experience?
Are they a registered business and do they have they have business insurances, etc.
Is this their full time profession or is it just a ‘side hustle?
Asking questions of this nature will prove whether the weighing company is legitimate. At the end of the day, it is you and your family’s safety, and your hard-earned money. You have the right to ask these questions.
Use this article to ensure you make the right decisions when choosing a Weighing company to carry out your appointment.
•AWS•
