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When a weighbridge stops working, the first thing to establish is whether the weight indicator has failed or the connection between the indicator and the system, because each fault is fixed by someone different. If the indicator still shows a weight, the operator switches to manual weighing and keys in the figure from the display, and the system records that the weight was entered by hand and by whom. Whether traffic stops in the meantime depends on the procedure agreed before the failure: who calls for service, who may enter weights by hand and what happens to the weighbridge ticket.
Indicator or connection failure: how to tell what has broken
| Symptom | Likely cause | Who fixes it |
|---|---|---|
| The indicator shows a weight, but the system does not see it | the connection between the indicator and the system | your IT team or us |
| The indicator shows nothing | the power supply or the indicator itself | the weighbridge service engineer |
| There is a weight, but it is clearly wrong | dirt on the platform, a damaged load cell | the weighbridge service engineer |
| The weight keeps jumping and does not settle | platform mechanics, or wind when the vehicle is empty | the weighbridge service engineer |
To the operator, a broken connection looks exactly like a broken weighbridge, yet it is fixed by someone else entirely. That is why telling the two apart is the most important part of the procedure: without it, the call goes to the wrong place and half a day is lost.
Manual weighing mode
TraxSystem has a manual mode in which the operator enters the weight read from the indicator display. The weighing is created as usual and linked to the entry and the vehicle, and the record shows that the weight was entered by hand and by whom. A manual weighing is not hidden and does not pass itself off as an automatic one, so if the weight is disputed later, you can see where the figure came from.
A procedure for weighbridge failure
Write the weighbridge failure procedure down in advance, because working it out in the middle of a breakdown always ends worse. It should cover:
- who calls, and on which number, for each of the four symptoms in the table,
- whether traffic keeps moving in manual mode or waits (a commercial decision, not a technical one),
- who has permission to enter weights by hand, since not every operator needs it,
- what happens to a weighbridge ticket issued on a manually entered weight.
Manual weighings after the weighbridge is repaired
Once the weighbridge is repaired, the manually entered weighings stay in the register. The system does not overwrite them or recalculate them retrospectively, because there is nothing to recalculate them with: the figure on the display was the only weight that existed at that moment. What you do need is to go through the outage period for completeness and check that every weighing has an entry and that the tickets were issued.
What TraxSystem will not do when the weighbridge fails
TraxSystem will not diagnose a mechanical fault in the weighbridge. It sees that no weight is coming through or that the weight is unstable, and that is not the same as knowing the cause. Nor does it replace weighbridge servicing or legal verification, because metrological requirements apply to the instrument itself.
The system will not stop a vehicle leaving without being weighed unless you set it up that way. The block is part of the entry type configuration and is switched off by default.
Nor can the system tell an operator’s mistake from a correct reading: a manual entry is only as accurate as the person who made it.
Questions and answers
Can manual weighing be allowed for a set period only?
No. Permission to enter weights by hand is granted to specific people, with no time limit. Usually only the shift supervisors and the manager have it.
Does a weighbridge ticket with a manually entered weight look different?
No. It has the same content; how the weight was entered is visible in the weighing register.
What if the weighbridge works but the connection to the server is down?
What keeps working in that situation depends on how the deployment is configured, and it is agreed during the pre-implementation analysis. We do not promise up front that everything carries on, because that is not true of every configuration.
Will the system tell us when the weighbridge stops responding?
Yes, through an alerting rule that sends an email or SMS. It is best set up during implementation, before the first failure.
Do we have to buy manual mode separately?
No. Manual mode is part of the Weighing module, which is priced by the number of weighbridges. The price of the module for one, two or three weighbridges is on the pricing page.
See also: Two-stage weighing: net weight without subtracting by hand · A weighbridge without an operator: when automatic weighing pays off · Weighbridge tickets: what they must contain