Top 5 Cheats at the Weighbridge
There are many ways criminals can cheat you at the scale. As thieves get smarter and more creative with their crimes, the need for your operation to keep up with smart fraud-prevention solutions is more critical than ever. The first step to protecting your operation, however, is to identify the most common types of fraud at the truck scale:
- Improper positioning - This cheat consists of a truck pulling onto a scale and positioning the truck either partially on or off the scale. This improper positioning affects the weight reading, resulting in a lower or higher weighment to the driver's benefit. This cheat results in your business either paying more than it needs to or missing out on lost profits.
- Load-cell tampering - Difficult to detect, this cheat involves tampering with one or more of the load cells on your truck scale. The cheater will visit your site and place a device on the load cell which will allow them to alter the weight reading in their favor.
- Lightening the load - This innovative cheat is common at sites with two-pass transactions. During this method, a driver will alter tare weights in his or her favor by expelling or adding additional weight through the use of a bladder of water or even an additional person.
- Disappearing goods - This method of fraud is common among fleets and consists of a driver stealing a small amount of goods over a large period. The longer the criminal gets away with this cheating, the more goods they can steal from your operation.
- Altering data - A direct threat to your business, altering data involves a criminal either partnering with a scale house attendant or hacking into your data system to alter transaction data to the driver's benefit.
