Software expert identifies modern ways to prevent fraud at truck scales.
If you have lost profits due to dishonest truck scales and weighing, you need to discover new and effective approaches to curb cheating. Since the truck scale is important for measuring your success, the lack of efficient measures can lead to huge economic losses.
In fact, fraudsters once made $2 million out of cheating a large international agribusiness company. The idea involved suppliers who colluded with a scale operator in creating bogus tickets for shipments of grain. The shipment never materialized.
Luckily, there is a new instrument to detect cheating at weighbridge truckscales. A controlling computer relies on the analysis of voltage waveform at weighbridges. It records the signal waveform of the weighing transducer and compares it with different truck axles.
If the turning point number on the system is inconsistent with output voltage, then cheating is present. There is data from experiments to prove that the system can sense cheating on time. If truck owners and managers can embrace this system, the challenge can be solved permanently
Common Cheating Methods with Truck Scales
Some scale owners are aware of the fact that cheating is prevalent. However, most do not know the magnitude of the problem and where the cheaters operate. Unattended scales are perhaps the largest vulnerability. Even with operators, fraudsters can easily use money to compromise them. The following are common cheating methods:
Removing Some Load Off the Weighbridge
A swindler can easily get away with cheating by removing some load from the weighbridge. For example, by positioning the back axle of the truck off the scale, a significant portion of the load stays off the weighbridge. This lowers the weight and the corresponding charges paid.
Placing Additional Load to the Weighbridge
Here, a truck driver colludes with another driver in a different truck. The second driver places his front tires on the truck scale. This creates extra weight on the system and hence increases the weight and the corresponding charges paid for goods.
Using Electronic Devices to Influence the Weights
While measures to combat cheating are put in place, fraudsters are becoming more mischievous. They are now using technology to carry out their activities. There are electronic devices that manipulate the reading of the weight. A fraudster controls the readings using remote control. While this method is sophisticated, it is also hard to detect.
How to Protect Your Profits by Preventing Cheating
In order to protect your valued investments from fraudsters, you need to embrace hightech measures. While some of them can prevent the manipulation of scales, others can detect such cheating early and put the perpetrators on notice. Look for software that prevents fraud at
all truck scales. Insist on one that has
security features that keep your profits for your company. It can function where the human eye is obstructed from accessing and when the entrance gate to a weighbridge is down.
The system prevents fraud from scale operators by assigning passwords to users. Additionally, you can assign roles to various trusted users so that access is limited to authorized personnel. Only authorized individuals can process transactions and set prices.
If someone tries to cheat after the installation of new software, you can easily detect this attempt. This is because a tamper-proof log sheet remains within the system. Next, the software intuitively reports any misuse. The following are advantages of anti-cheating software:
• An audit log records all transactions and changes permanently
• A printing audit records the number of times that tickets were reprinted
• A tamper-proof tare history tracks any unauthorized alteration to the tare weights of the truck
Features of Anti-cheating Software
Anti-cheating software relies on a weight graph to detect and catch cheaters who manipulate scales. The series of recorded readings make up a curve that illustrates the trend. If a driver, scale operator or any other personnel changes the electronic readings, the curve reports a sharp spike upwards or downwards.
At the same time, the system can detect and catch cheaters at a weighbridge whose scales are unattended. The software has cameras that can take photographs of the truck being weighed at various stages.
If a truck driver or a colluding weighing attendant tampers with scales or reading, the images display the misconduct. This includes instances when the driver does not position the truck appropriately. Additionally, the unattended software can abort a transaction if another truck attempts to drive over a traffic loop during a transaction.
The fact that fraud and cheating at weighbridges is common means that managers have to look for better ways to control the menace. The drawback is that the challenge is prevalent across all trucking industries, including the forest products sector. Experts recommend the use of on-board truck scales as a method to prevent fraud at conventional truck scales.
Author Bio: Kevin Hill heads up the marketing efforts and provides technical expertise to the sales and service teams at Quality Scales Unlimited in Byron, California. He enjoys everything mechanical and electronic, computers, the Internet and spending time with family.
