A multi-deck public weighbridge was recently installed to allow truck drivers to ensure their vehicle's axle group weights are within legal load limits before leaving the port facility.
Many instances of overloading fines are not for the truck exceeding its Gross Vehicle Mass but for overloaded axle groups. Load positioning is the main culprit and weighing a vehicle on a single deck weighbridge won’t identify overloaded axle groups. A multi-deck weighbridge is required as it is specifically designed for weighing each axle group individually during a single weighing transaction.
As the name suggests, a multi-deck weighbridge comprised multiple smaller weighbridge decks placed end to end with each deck acting as an individual weighing platform with its own load cells and digital weight indicator. The individual decks are of specific lengths to suit usual axle group spacings to ensure accurate axle group weights can be attained. The deck lengths on the Port of Brisbane Public Weighbridge are three, six, eleven and sixteen metres for an overall weighbridge length of thirty six metres.
Under the Chain of Responsibility legislation, each and every person and company even remotely involved in the loading and transportation process can be held partly responsible and incur heavy fines – including the consignor of the product as well as the receiver.
Supplied by Accuweigh’s QWM branch in Queensland, this public weighbridge is supported on eighteen stainless steel weighbridge load cells of thirty tonnes capacity each for a weighing capacity of one hundred and twenty tonnes. As this is a public weighbridge which requires the driver to exit the cab, raised steel grates run the entire length of the weighbridge to provide a non-slip surface to assist drivers when exiting and re-entering their vehicles.
Presently this public weighbridge has a weighbridge operator to perform all public weighings transactions, but approval is being sought to allow for operation as an unattended public weighbridge with the drivers following prompts on a touch-screen PC to perform their own weighings and ticket printing.
Accuweigh/QWM is Australia’s largest supplier of weighbridges with full after sales service support available through eight branches across Australia.