What's the point of truck scales?

The significance of truck scales, in layman's terms, is to "control overloading, protect roads, and ensure fairness." They act as "fair scales" and "safety sentinels" on the highway, solving three of the most troublesome problems in the freight industry:

1. Protecting highways and bridges, saving the public money on road repairs

■ Stopping road killers: Overloaded trucks damage roads like a knife cutting tofu: the damage caused by one overloaded truck is equivalent to tens of thousands of runs by a legally loaded vehicle.
Scales force unloading, preventing bridges from collapsing and roads from becoming "wavy."
■ Blocking road repair loopholes: Overloaded trucks save on freight costs, but the public has to pay for road repairs. Scales require overloaded trucks to pay fines and repair roads, fairly sharing the costs.

2. Maintaining fairness in freight transport, ending weight-related fraud

■ No disputes between buyers and sellers: Coal, sand, and gravel are traded by the ton: scales provide irrefutable proof of weight, preventing sellers from falsifying figures and buyers from being shortchanged.
■ Blocking Freight Tax Evasion: Drivers stealing cargo en route (e.g., unloading 10 tons of coal for resale) will be detected by the weighbridge – the outbound/inbound weights won't match.
■ Crushing Malicious Competition: 10 trips by a law-abiding driver equals 1 trip by an overloaded truck making exorbitant profits. The weighbridge penalizes "professional overloaders," allowing honest drivers to earn money.

3. Ensuring Transportation Safety, Saving Lives invisibly

■ Preventing Brake Failure: Overloaded trucks have double the braking distance; the weighbridge's forced weight reduction is like insurance for the braking system.
■ Preventing Tire Blowouts and Rollovers: Overloaded cargo greatly increases the probability of tire blowouts; the weighbridge stops "tire bombs."
■ Checking for Hidden Vehicle Problems: Weighbridge stations are always staffed with inspectors: they check for hidden dangers such as malfunctioning brake lights and swaying cargo, preventing accidents on the road.

4. Ensuring National Control of "Taxes on Wheels"

■ Collecting Road Maintenance Fees: Trucks pay fees based on tonnage; the weighbridge catches trucks that falsely report "small tonnage, large load" to steal fees.
■ Curbing the circulation of illicit goods: Overweight illegal goods such as smuggled oil and illegally logged timber must be inspected, and weighbridges have become a filter for crime.