Air-Weigh (United States) - Idaho-Based Supplier of Landscape Materials Gets the Most Out of Its Company-Owned Fleet.

With its customers expecting to find 28 bins of different landscaping rocks and bark each time they visit, Mountain Home, Idaho-based Yard Creations has to be able to source landscape materials from anywhere it can find them.

That can create a real shipping challenge. While the company owns its own spring-loaded belt trailer, the cost of shipping can be prohibitive if Yard Creations can’t maximize the size of each load – especially when it has to haul across long distances. But it can’t risk exceeding the legal weight limit.

The solution has come in the form of Air-Weigh on-board scales. And owner Richard Brandt, being a retired over-the-road truck driver, knew what a difference the scales would make – especially for longer hauls.

Instead of loading the trailer far underweight out of caution – typically as low as 15 yards of material – Yard Creations now loads its trailers to approximately 22 yards of material. Since the business sells the material at $50 per yard, that facilitates an extra $350 in sales per load, and additional profit of $110 per load.

“It’s not a long trip from Boise to Mountain Home – about a 45-mile trip,” Brandt said. “But we also have to go up to Washington state to get this white rock that we sell, and when you go that far, you want to get as much as possible, so you load up to the legal limit.”

With one scale on the tractor and another on the belt trailer, Brandt can see the weight update in real time during loading – with all the information displayed right on his phone. It has not only eliminated the need to visit in-ground scales to discover the truck’s weight. It has added an additional seven yards of material to each haul, which increases the average profit of each trip by $110.

“I go up to Rexford and I’ve got to load out of this pit,” Brandt said. “You can use their scales but it’s two or three football fields away. So if the loading operator has you overloaded, then you have to offload. I don’t need to worry about that anymore. I can sit there and say, OK, I’m good on the front. Put the next one on the back. I get loaded real quick with no mistakes. I haven’t had to reload once.”

Brandt also noted that, unlike some other manufacturers of on-board scales, the Air-Weigh scales are set up to work well with a spring-loaded trailer.

“Air-Weigh had a great setup for that, and they were the only ones who did,” Brandt said. “I didn’t even know it existed. Anybody with a spring-loaded trailer does a lot of guessing (about weight), but these things are so accurate. Once you get the hang of it, they’re within 200 or 300 pounds.”

Air-Weigh will be previewing a new scale model at the American Trucking Associations Management Conference & Exhibition from October 14-17 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas. Trucking companies who want to experience the same benefits are encouraged to attend the show and see for themselves what Air-Weigh has coming next.

About Air-Weigh:

Since its founding in 1987, Air-Weigh has led the industry with patented, electronic on-board weighing technology. Air-Weigh innovative on-board electronic weighing solutions are known for accuracy and toughness. Featuring a comprehensive product line of scales, Air-Weigh provides solutions for both trucks and trailers with mechanical or air suspensions. With expertise in advanced on-board scale communications, the company offers a complete vehicle weighing system that will help reduce costs, improve efficiency and maximize profitability.