Pit & Quarry • April 2024 • WHAT TO KNOW: Truck Scale System Components

Doing business your way includes customizing your truck scale system with components and accessories to help ensure safe, efficient operations.

Doing business your way includes customizing your truck scale system with components and accessories to help ensure safe, efficient operations. It’s essential to consider space requirements for accessories before installation to optimize the flow of traffic. You can choose from accessories including guiderails and catwalks, remote displays, automated kiosks, data management software and more.

Guiderails help prevent accidental drive-offs and costly repairs associated with potential damage. Guiderails can be designed with sealed single-pipe or double-pipe configurations that bolt to the scale sides, allowing them to break away from the module if a vehicle comes in contact. Sealing the guiderails prevents corrosion-causing moisture and debris from accumulating. While it is never recommended for drivers to exit their vehicle on a truck scale, you may face occasional driver or pedestrian traffic near your truck scale. You should choose OSHA-compliant catwalks to ensure safety at applications where pedestrian traffic is unavoidable around the scale.

Remote displays are a simple solution for communicating weight data and directions to truck drivers while they are on a scale. Some simple remote displays show only the weight, or the weight and red and green stop/go signal lights. However, you may need a remote display with messaging and customization within the messaging display, such as layout, color or transitions between messages.

There are a variety of truck scale kiosks available, but some of the most popular are automated ticketing kiosks. They increase driver safety by ensuring drivers remain in their vehicles, while also increasing accuracy by removing the risk for human error that comes with handwritten tickets. Other kiosks include HID RFID readers, simplifying truck check-in for weighing processes. As kiosks can integrate with your central office system, they can improve efficiency as well as driver safety at your facility.

Truck scale data management software can print tickets or reports, as well as store information to your central database. Truck scale software provides easy monitoring and reporting on transactions, customer and hauler data, product inventory and more. Some software programs also offer different access roles, protecting your sensitive business information while allowing operators to perform only necessary functions for their roles.

You may also want to consider stoplights to communicate universal stop/go red and green signals at a distance, helping to improve traffic flow and reduce congestion at the scale. Barrier gates can also be installed to block the entry or exit of your truck scale until after a designated action is taken. Rice Lake Weighing Systems offers a range of truck scale components and accessories to complement your SURVIVOR® system. Industry experts can also help you compare different components and options to ensure you create the best system for your business.