Axle Weight Technology (Axtec) has installed dynamic drive-over axle weighbridges at eight Hanson Building Products production sites. This, says Hanson, is helping the company to improve the efficiency of its transport operations, ensure that it is legally compliant on vehicle weights, and is reducing CO2 emissions. As part of the package Hanson has also taken the Axtec Fleet Management Programme, a system that stores the identity and axle and gross weight limits of every rigid, tractor and trailer i
Axle Weight Technology ( Axtec) has installed dynamic drive-over axle weighbridges at eight Hanson Building Products production sites.
This, says Hanson, is helping the company to improve the efficiency of its transport operations, ensure that it is legally compliant on vehicle weights, and is reducing CO2 emissions.
As part of the package Hanson has also taken the Axtec Fleet Management Programme, a system that stores the identity and axle and gross weight limits of every rigid, tractor and trailer in the company’s large fleet.
A key feature of the system is the capture of data on the percentage utilisation of the payload for each of the 55,000 vehicles that will be weighed each year. This information is stored in the system’s memory and reports can be extracted to enable Hanson to analyse fleet utilisation and make efficiency improvements, such as optimising payloads or using different vehicle configurations.
“Improving our fleet utilisation is an important benefit for us, especially with third party hauliers. This will help to significantly reduce our costs and bring environmental gains by improving the ratio of CO2 emissions per tonne of product delivered,” says Mark Hawes, the Hanson project engineer responsible for the installations.
“We also want to ensure that all of our delivery vehicles are legally compliant with their weight limits and avoid the risk of a breach, which could potentially lead to fines to both the driver and operator.”
When a laden truck arrives at the weighbridge the driver inputs its identity number and details for its trailer. This is checked against the database and a ticket is then printed showing the axle weights and the legal limits for that vehicle. A warning is also printed out if any of the axle or the gross weight limits are exceeded, enabling remedial action to be taken before the vehicle goes on the public roads.
Axtec says its dynamic weighbridge is also able to weigh vehicles of any axle configuration and length, including maximum length drawbar units.
