On-board weighing system

A wheeled loader at a remote location of British Sugar has been equipped with an on-board weighing system and a telemetry software package. This system cuts vehicle turnaround time, ensures the accuracy of truck loading and reduces the environmental impact of the operation. In addition to being the leading supplier of sugar to the UK market, British Sugar is also the largest supplier in the UK of agricultural fertiliser to the landscape and amenity industries. This dual-success stems from the company’s zero-wastage objective and the efforts made to transform any waste product from sugar beet processing into a resaleable product. One example is where the soil washed off the beet undergoes a drying and blending process to turn it into a range of quality topsoils for landscaping and sports turf purposes. At the company’s Wissington plant in Norfolk, the topsoil site is located over 2.4km from the central weighbridge and handles over 50,000t of topsoil per year either loaded onto trucks or as a bagged product. This can mean vehicles spending a large amount of time on site and therefore higher haulier rates. In order to speed up site activity and reduce costs as far as possible, British Sugar has recently invested in a RDS Loadmaster 9000i on-board weighing system supplied by RDS South East Ltd and the Load 2000 telemetry software package from Derbyshire-based CC Software Ltd for their Volvo L70F wheeled loader. Given the remote location of the site and the desire not to jam the current weighbridge, British Sugar opted to have the Loadmaster trade-approved making it legal for the sale of goods direct from the weighing data on the loader. This data is transferred directly from the loader to the corporate Integrated Weighbridge System via a two-way telemetry communication link. This, coupled with the Load 2000 programme, allows the operator to interface with the central system giving live updates of job status. New jobs are now despatched to the loader immediately and once complete the load information is transmitted to the central system for recording and invoicing purposes. The advantages of implementing this system include cutting vehicle turnaround time, thus saving costs on hauliers, ensuring the accuracy of truck loading and reducing the environmental impact of the operation. Alongside the Loadmaster a rugged in-cab touch-screen computer is installed and connected to a transmitter that sends data to the central network hub via a 5MHz mesh router. British Sugar has worked closely with CC Software and RDS Technology to develop the system, ensuring its ease of use and utilising all required software features to their full capability. Andrew Dear, Area and Beet Supply Manager at British Sugar Topsoil, is impressed with the way the weighing and telemetry operation is working, saying, “This has been a worthwhile investment and the continual development of the project in partnership with CC Software and RDS is creating a successful system that helps us achieve all of our objectives.” Indeed objectives have been met and exceeded, Mr Dear continues to explain that, “Vehicle turnaround time between entry and exit has been halved and hence the company has succeeded in getting better rates from hauliers. Also, rather than sending vehicles out a tonne or two short and having to invoice for less product, we are now loading vehicles correctly every time and increasing revenue.” Other advantages of adopting the system included a reduction in fuel costs, fewer vehicle movements around the site due to over or under-loaded trucks, which in turn has improved health and safety practice and personnel have also been saved extra cross-site journeys for updates and load data collection. The implementation of this advanced weighing data transfer method has already brought clear benefits to British Sugar’s topsoil operations. The advantages so far have been numerous and are making a noticeable difference to the profitability of the company. This will help ensure that British Sugar continues meet its zero-waste objective and reap the benefits thereof.