What Does The Container Industry Say?
Here's what our customers tell us are the top 5 benefits of Bison's portable container scales - in their words.
Top 5 Benefits Of Portable Container Scales
Compliance
"We meet our Method 1 obligations for the VGM. It means that we're reliably giving weights to our transporters for road and then to the carriers for sea freight as well."
- Kuehne + Nagel (Freight Forwarder)
Fully certified and calibrated, Bison portable container scales can be relied on to manage SOLAS VGM compliance. They also ensure safe and compliant handling of your container through the logistics chain. Vehicle weight management, health and safety, chain of responsibility - these are all enhanced when accurate weight data is retrieved and communicated at the earliest opportunity. These benefits don't just flow to the shipper, savvy shippers also recognise the indirect benefits of enhancing safety and compliance beyond their operations. Weighing containers early with portable container scales enable this.
Control
"We can do everything ourselves, so the power is in our hands! So the main benefit is that it saves us time and we control the whole process internally."
- Progressive Leathers (Exporter)
Simplify and control! It's an effective mantra. With portable container scales, you are in charge. You get to weigh the container, ensure the weight is accurate and get the job done at a time and place that suits you. This results in consistency, no hold-ups and reliable information flow in your shipping operation.
Control is also enhanced by the Bison VGM App. The App means your team can capture and email a detailed container weight immediately, as soon as you weigh the container. There is no waiting on dockets to be hand-delivered and processed, and no reliance on third parties.
Convenience
"Flexibility. We like the ability to use them anywhere, so it's a very mobile solution for us."
- Faroe Ship (Carrier)
The most common feedback we get from our customers is how simple Bison Container Scales are to use. This leads us to the third benefit; convenience. The portability of the scales mean that shippers can weigh their containers anywhere on-site. You don't have to rely on heavy container handling equipment, trucks and chassis, cranes and weighbridges. This means that you get the container weight without waiting for, or occupying these assets.
Portable container scales are small and compact, so they are easily moved between sites in a light vehicle. They are also designed to weigh containers accurately on rough and uneven surfaces. The simplicity and mobility of these scales combine to make a beneficially convenient weighing method.
Time Savings
"Speed of getting the information to the port and overseas is the main benefit and it is all official."
- Shuttle Express (Transport Company)
With tight schedules and cut-offs to meet, time savings are always welcome in any production or shipping operation! So, if you're currently spending time weighing all of your cargo items to calculate the VGM, or your container movements are time-constrained by weighbridge bookings and travel times, then having your own portable container scales on-site offers serious potential benefits.
Instead of hauling 30 tonnes of deadweight to a weigh station, portable scales save time by letting you take the scales to the container. Coupled with the Bison VGM App, portable container scales let you digitise the weight, generate a VGM certificate and email it instantly. This cuts down on time-consuming admin and processing activities.
COST SAVINGS
"We save a fortune on transport and weighbridges. It also saves tying up resources like trucks and staff."
- Conroy Removals (Removals Firm)
The number one benefit of integrating portable container scales into your operation are the potential cost savings. How much are you currently paying to verify your container weights? What will this cost you over the course of a year? It's not uncommon to pay $50 - $100 to have your container run over a weighbridge. If you were averaging around 3 containers per week at $74 per VGM, you could pay off a set of portable scales in under a year. The payback time and cost savings after that are really just a function of the cost per container weigh and the volume of containers you're moving. The higher your weighbridge fees and container volumes, the more compelling the investment case becomes.
With that in mind, and the other great benefits of compliance, control, convenience and time savings - weighing containers with portable scales is an option well worth thinking about. To take a look at Bison's portable container scales, click below.
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Whether your lifting or weighing containers, Bison has a range of adaptable solutions that provide operators with freedom over their container logistics.
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