The perfect tool to help improve efficiency and safety on waste collection and transfer vehicles.
By Howard Baker
Collecting and transporting waste can be a daunting task. The goal is to be able to use each vehicle on the road efficiently and safely during the entire collection and hauling process. That means knowing the limitations and capabilities of each vehicle and taking advantage of them.
refuse and roll-off units.
Right: Sentinel wireless monitor system for transfer trucks and
trailers.
Images courtesy of Cleral.
Knowing Your Vehicles
Without the proper equipment on the vehicle, the job just got a lot harder. Collection routes often use a wide range of vehicles all with different features to consider. These vehicles can be a front loader, side loader or a rear loader refuse unit. It could be a roll-off or grapple truck. Does it have a single drive axle or tandems drive axles? Does it have any lift axles?
These different units could all have different weight limitations and it is important to know what they are and maximize the legal payload for each vehicle on every trip. Another type of vehicle used to haul waste from the transfer stations to the landfills are the transfer units. These semi tractors and trailers typically operate at a GVW’s of 80,000 lbs. or more. Again, axle configuration determines how much weight can be legally hauled. Not knowing or ignoring the legal weight limitations of a vehicle does not exempt a company from its responsibility to operate legally and safely.
An Important Piece of Equipment
Often a driver is given the challenge of making the decision of knowing how much to load on the vehicle. How can a driver know how much the vehicle weighs or its payload without one of the most important pieces of equipment needed on the vehicle? That important piece of equipment is an on-board weighing system that can show the driver how much weight is on the vehicle and how it is distributed on the axle groups. With this tool, the driver does not need to guess whether the load is heavy, light, distributed improperly or even if its unsafe and illegal to haul.
Consider some of the daily challenges that can be overcome by using an on-board weighing system. The biggest being, at the point of loading, that the vehicles GVW and axle weights are known immediately. This means:
• There is no wasted time heading out with a light load that may require an extra trip that day
• There is no need to load and then worry if you are overweight while driving; this can be distracting to the driver
• There is no more hauling overweight loads that can cause excess wear and tear and increase vehicle downtime
• It simplifies the decision about where to dispose of the load when certain landfills would cost less to use based on the weight of the payload and save money and time
• Drivers feel less stressed knowing that the vehicle is loaded properly
• Liability and safety can be improved
• There is better communication between vehicle and management, which leads to better decision making
If you stop and think about all of the equipment on the vehicle there is probably nothing as beneficial as an on-board weighing system—from the daily productivity of the vehicle, to helping protect the driver and the public or providing a better return on investment.
Improvements in Weighing Systems
Over the years, on-board weighing systems have improved tremendously, primarily due to the advancement of today’s electronics, computer science and telematics. On-board scales are basically now small on-board computers that can connect with most of today’s telematic systems used to share data and vehicle information between the vehicle and company administrators. These newer systems use technology that can be used on almost any type of vehicle and can be considered a Mechatronic approach to building today’s on-board weighing systems. A Mechatronic weighing system is one that integrates the principals of multiple engineering fields such as mechanical, electronic, computer and telecommunication. These engineering fields are integrated into the system to improve and optimize the systems functionality. Today’s systems can be used on vehicles with either an air ride suspension, a mechanical suspension or a combination of both. Some systems use wireless communication between sensors, have digital displays and can process weight data with an accuracy of +/- 1 percent. Some include functions for printing weight data, have incorporated cameras or other safety features, all of which can be interfaced with an existing OBC to share and transmit real time weight data.
Imagine the usefulness and advantage of always knowing the vehicles weight and how the weight is distributed on the vehicle at the point of loading. No matter whether the vehicle is a refuse unit out on a route, a roll-off or grapple truck picking up a bin or a transfer unit preparing to leave from a transfer station, knowing the weights can save time and money along with improving safety. | WA
Howard Baker is the Managing Partner for Cleralusa llc., which is the U.S. Distributor for Cleral Inc.a leading manufacturer of today’s Mechatronic on-board weighing systems. A Canadian manufacturer Cleral Inc. has been designing and building on board weighing systems for the transportation industry for more than 20 years. He can be reached at (866) 901-7372.