If you own a feedmill or you run a company that owns truck scales then you’ll want to hear about this story. Basically, there were a few folks creating fake tickets at the scale for loads of corn that were paid for but never delivered to the actual feed mill. The result was a crime in excess of $2 million.

Hobbs worked as a scale operator and pellet mill operator at Cargill’s Butterfield feed mill from December 1999 until March 2013. When a delivery truck would arrive at the feed mill, Hobbs was responsible for weighing each truck and its contents. Once the truck was weighed, Hobbs created a scale ticket for the company that delivered the grain, corn, or feed. A copy of the scale ticket was sent to Cargill’s headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for processing and payment to the trucking company. Beisly and Bunn approached Hobbs in 2002 about creating fictitious scale tickets for non-delivered loads of corn as a way to make money and ultimately defraud Cargill. Hobbs began creating completely fictitious scale tickets for Beisly and Bunn for the delivery of loads of grain, corn, or feed that did not truly exist.

Beisly owned and operated K&B Grain. Beisly obtained contracts with Cargill for the delivery of a set number of grain loads that were supposed to deliver grain, corn, or another type of product to the Butterfield feed mill. Beisly admitted that he received numerous fictitious scale tickets from Hobbs for deliveries that were never actually made. Beisly also admitted that at least once a week, he received a fictitious scale ticket from Hobbs that claimed he had delivered a shipment of grain to the Butterfield feed mill, when in truth and fact, no such shipment or delivery was made. Shortly after the fictitious scale tickets were created by Hobbs, Beisly received a payment from Cargill. Bunn owned and operating RB Grain. Bunn was contracted through The Scoular Company to transport shipments of wheat, corn, and grain to the Cargill feed mill in Butterfield. Bunn also admitted that he received numerous fictitious scale tickets from Hobbs for deliveries that were never actually made. Once Scoular received a payment from Cargill based on the submission of a fictitious scale ticket, Scoular issued a check to Bunn based on the delivery of wheat, corn, or feed that was never delivered. Hobbs initially received $300 in kickbacks for each “ghost load,” which was later increased to $500 in cash for each “ghost load.” Cargill officials discovered the fraud when the amount of grain, corn, or feed that was being paid for was inconsistent with the amount they actually received. Over a span of nine years, this fraud scheme caused losses to Cargill of approximately $2 million.

So how do you prevent this type of behavior from happening to your business? One way is to install cameras to take photographs of a truck at various stages of a transaction is one way. The photographs or video can show whether or not a driver has positioned a truck properly. Another way is to utilize vehicle recording software such as Cardinal WinVRS or Rice Lake Transact.

Cardinal’s powerful WinVRS software keeps traffic moving over your scale by providing fast, accurate collection of data on vehicles, accounts, orders, and materials. Unique, user-defined fields allow you to easily configure the system to meet your needs. A wide range of reports are available to provide period histories, material totals, customer information and more. WinVRS’s convenient file utilities menu allows data to be exported to other applications such as accounting and materials control. NTEP legal-for-trade certified. WinVRS-TOUCH offers all the same great features as WinVRS, but comes with larger fonts and buttons for convenient touchscreen navigation. When a user enters into any WinVRS window with input prompts, an on-screen keyboard appears.

From installation and setup, to everyday transactions, data management has never been easier! Rice Lake TRANSACT® was designed to make new scale management installations or upgrades virtually effortless. Even operators with little or no computer experience are immediately comfortable with its intuitive, graphically enhanced user interface. But don’t let its simplicity fool you – TransAct serves as a powerful central database, seamlessly integrating your entire operation with transaction information. From the scale, to the office, to the customer, all relevant data is quickly and accurately generated for each step in your enterprise.

One of the largest chicken integrators in Malaysia operates a feedmill, which is located at Port Klang, Malaysia’s premier port. The feedmill imports raw materials from Asia, Australia, Europe, the USA and South America and exports processed chicken to both the domestic and export markets in Singapore, Bangladesh, Brunei, Hong Kong and the Middle East. The feeedmill has a capacity of 160,000 metric tonnes of poultry feed per year, making it vital for the mill to have accurate measurements of incoming raw materials and outgoing finished product.

When the feedmill opened in 1990, Avery Weigh-Tronix installed a 12 metre weighbridge with a capacity of 40,000kg. After more than twenty years of successful operation, incoming and outgoing trucks got longer and heavier as the plant’s capacity increased. As a result, longer trucks had to be unhooked from their prime movers in order to fit on the weighbridge platform. As well as the inconvenience caused, this also resulted in weighing accuracy problems.

The longevity and reliability of the older weighbridge lead the customer to contact Avery Weigh-Tronix to help resolve the problem. After careful examination of site requirements, the team from Avery Weigh-Tronix recommended that the company replace the older scale with a new 18 metre BMC weighbridge. The existing compression load cells, indicator and computer were retained, keeping costs down by re-using existing parts and reducing the need for additional training for weighbridge operators. Four new load cells were added, increasing the capacity of the weighbridge to 80,000kg. After a site survey, the team advised the mill to move the weighbridge to a new location, making better use of the tight space available on site as well as offering smoother traffic slow and improved site security. Click here to read the rest of the case study.

Have you ever driven by a truck weigh station on the interstate highway? Or perhaps you’ve driven by a feed processing plant and noticed a truck scale out front? The odds are that most of us have done one or the other of the scenarios above. So, how does a truck scale work?

A truck scale is a large set of scales, typically installed permanently on a concrete foundation, either above ground or in a pit that is used to weigh trucks and their cargo. By weighing the vehicle both empty and when loaded, the load carried by the vehicle can be calculated. Typically the truck scale will have several load cells underneath the platform.

Truck scales can be installed above ground with a ramp leading up a short distance and the weighing equipment underneath or they can be pit mounted with the weighing equipment and platform in a pit so that the weighing surface is level with the road. They are typically built from steel or concrete and by nature are extremely robust. In earlier versions the bridge is installed over a rectangular pit that contains levers that ultimately connect to a balance mechanism. The most complex portion of this type is the arrangement of levers underneath the weighbridge since the response of the scale must be independent of the distribution of the load. Modern devices use multiple load cells that connect to an electronic equipment to totalize the sensor inputs. In either type of semi-permanent scale the weight readings are typically recorded in a nearby scale house or office.

Truck scales are usually utilized to either sell or charge by weight (Trade Approved) or by check weighing both axle weights and gross vehicle weights. This helps to stop axle overloading and possible heavy fines. Truck Scales are used in industries that manufacture or move bulk items, such as in mines or quarries, garbage dumps / recycling centers, bulk liquid and powder movement, household goods, and electrical equipment. Since the weight of the vehicle carrying the goods is known (and can be ascertained quickly if it is not known by the simple expedient of weighing the empty vehicle) they are a quick and easy way to measure the flow of bulk goods in and out of different locations.

A single axle truck scale or axle weighing system can be used to check individual axle weights and gross vehicle weights to determine whether the vehicle is safe to travel on the public highway without being stopped and fined by the authorities for being overloaded. Similar to the full size truck scale these systems can be pit mounted with the weighing surface flush to the level of the roadway or surface mounted.

Have you ever wondered why do we even need to weigh trucks? Or why do we even need weigh stations on the interstate highway? Weigh stations were created to enforce safety regulations for big trucks that you see on the highway. These truck scales allow each state to check the freight carrier’s compliance with fuel tax laws; to check weight restrictions; to check equipment safety and to check compliance with Hours of Service Regulations. A Truck scale is a large set of scales, usually mounted permanently on a concrete foundation, that is used to weigh entire vehicles and their contents. By weighing the vehicle both empty and when loaded, the load carried by the vehicle can be calculated. Weigh stations are regulated by individual state governments and therefore have vastly different requirements from state to state. They are typically operated by the state’s Department of Transportation (DOT) or Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) in conjunction with the state highway patrol or state police, thus enabling enforcement of applicable laws. The federal maximum weight is set at 80,000 pounds.

Trucks exceeding the federal weight limit can still operate on the country’s highways with an overweight permit, but such permits are only issued before the scheduled trip and expire at the end of the trip. Overweight permits are only issued for loads that cannot be broken down to smaller shipments that fall below the federal weight limit, and if there is no other alternative to moving the cargo by truck. Permitted oversize trucks are often required to coordinate with the Departments of Transportation and law enforcement agencies of the transited states before the trip begins, as most states require oversize trucks to be escorted. Many states have weigh in motion technology that allow a continuous flow of truck weighing.

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