Weighbridge weight differences: how to catch a short load at the gate.

When a truck arrives lighter than its bilty says, the difference may be goods lost on the road, two weighbridges that read differently, or a mistake on paper. Here is how to tell them apart, how to choose the difference you accept, and how to check every truck the same way.

By Saeed Amin, founder of Rivo · 27 October 2026

Gross, tare and net

A weighbridge weighs the whole truck. The weight with the goods is the gross weight, the weight of the empty truck is the tare, and the goods are the difference between the two: the net weight. The weighbridge slip (kanta parchi) shows all three when a truck is weighed both loaded and empty.

Compare the same figure every time: the net weight of the goods on the bilty, against the net weight at your weighbridge. Comparing a gross weight with a net weight shows a difference that is only the truck.

Why two weighbridges disagree

Some difference is normal. Two weighbridges are never set up exactly alike. A truck weighs more with a full fuel tank or wet covers than with an empty tank and dry ones, and goods such as cotton or grain can take on or lose moisture on the way.

A larger difference needs an explanation: goods taken off the truck on the way, goods that were never loaded, a bilty written with the planned weight instead of the weighed one, or a figure typed wrongly.

Choose the difference you accept

Decide in advance how big a difference you accept, as a percentage of the weight loaded, and check every truck that goes over it — heavier or lighter. Set it too tight and every truck is checked; too loose and real shortages pass. The right figure depends on your goods and your weighbridges, so look at the differences on your trucks over the last few months before you choose it.

A check at the gate, step by step

The transporter gives the bilty weight, and the number of pieces for counted goods, before the truck arrives.
Where you weigh at loading, record the weight as the truck leaves.
At the receiving gate, weigh the truck before looking at the bilty, so the expected figure does not change what is written down.
Keep a photo of the weighbridge slip with the figure.
Compare it with the weight loaded, or with the bilty when the truck was not weighed at loading.
For counted goods, count the pieces as well. A short count can hide inside an acceptable weight.
When the difference is over your limit, hold the transporter’s bill, not the goods, and record what was decided and why.

How Rivo does it

An administrator turns the weight check on in Rivo and sets the limit as a percentage. Rivo then compares each truck’s weight at your weighbridge with the weight loaded, or with the bilty weight when the truck was not weighed at loading, and flags the truck when the two differ by more than the limit, heavier or lighter. Where you weigh trucks as they leave a pickup, it also compares that weight with the bilty.

The people at your gates use Rivo’s Gate screen, under the Receiving role. It lists the trucks leaving or arriving at their factories today and over the next three days, and finds a truck by its gate code. For an arriving truck, the gate types the weighbridge weight, adds a photo of the slip and ticks that the two match — before it is shown the bilty weight. For counted goods it types the pieces received, and fewer pieces than the bilty flags the truck as a short count. The gate sees no prices, bids or bills.

If the weighbridge is broken, the gate presses “Couldn’t weigh it” and gives the reason, and the truck is flagged as not weighed. The gate can also flag a truck by hand — a short count, damage, wrong papers or a broken seal — and add photos of the truck, the seal, the goods or the damage, and the goods received note.

A flag does not stop the goods. The truck is still delivered, but the transporter cannot bill it until an administrator or manager closes the flag with a reason and a note. The transporter sees that the truck is being checked, never why.

The weight check is one part of the truck’s record in Rivo, beside its award, its documents and its bill. Trucks priced by weight are billed on their bilty weight. See the paperwork on a truck.

Rivo does not connect to weighbridges: weights are typed from the slip, and the photo of the slip is kept. The check covers road loads with one pickup and one drop-off; loads with more stops, and sea containers, are not checked. Rivo does not take a shortage off the bill by itself: a person decides.