Time is a valuable commodity for truck drivers. An app allows them to save time at the weigh scale.

While it may sound cliché, when it comes to truck drivers, time is money. Drivers are limited by hours-of-service regulations that govern how many hours they can drive before a mandatory break.

Today, qualified drivers are at a premium. The American Trucking Associations estimates that the industry is short 80,000 drivers and that the industry will need to recruit one million new drivers in the next nine years. In addition, driver turnover rates are upwards of 70% at a time when shipping demand is high. Therefore, it’s vital that fleets not only find drivers but also retain them.

Fleets are investing in new equipment and adding technology to their vehicles in order to attract drivers, and they’re also doing whatever they can to maximize drivers’ on-duty time.

However, there are a variety of things that impact drivers’ actual driving time, including weather, traffic congestion, accidents, detention time at shippers/receivers, time spent looking for parking spaces for mandatory breaks, and time spent at weigh scales.

Some of these delays can’t be avoided, but when it comes to weigh scales, there are things fleets can do to help their drivers save time. The process of weighing a truck has nine steps (sometimes more) and can take 15 to 30 minutes to complete. The amount of time can increase to an hour or more if adjustments are needed because the truck is overweight. The time to weigh and make load adjustments eats into a driver’s legal driving time.

CAT Scale’s Weigh My Truck app streamlines the weighing process, and it can take as little as 60 seconds for a driver to get their truck weighed and be back on the road.

The process is easy. Fleets set up accounts for their drivers via the Weigh My Truck portal and input the necessary information: driver’s name, truck number, trailer number, trucking company name, payment method, etc. Drivers can also set up their own accounts via the same portal.

When the account is set up, drivers download the app and can begin using it at CAT Scale locations. The app eliminates the need for the driver to leave the truck to pay the weigh ticket. The driver drives onto the CAT Scale, opens the app, and confirms the scale location and the truck identification information (which are displayed on the driver’s smartphone or tablet). The payment is processed, and the guaranteed weights appears on the device’s screen and a PDF copy of the scale ticket is emailed to the driver.

It’s that simple—and efficient, from the time it takes the driver to drive onto the scale to the time the vehicle is weighed, the weight verified, and the driver drives off the scale. Drivers no longer have to find a parking space and then go inside to wait in line to receive their certified weigh ticket; taking anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes. That 30-minute savings translates into more time for drivers to get to their destinations.

In addition to saving drivers time, the app also saves the fleet back office time. Fleets can receive the PDF scale ticket in real time and also paying through the app eliminates driver reimbursements.

To learn how drivers and fleet alike, can save time using the Weigh My Truck app, go to WeighMyTruck.com.

Read a previous interview with CAT Scale’s vice-president of marketing.

Read a previous article on how the app works.

Look for the next article on how fleets benefit from the app.