Weighbridge glossary — WeighHub

Weighbridge (truck scale): A large platform scale that weighs a truck with its load. It reads the vehicle's gross weight through load cells beneath the deck, and is the reference for every inbound and outbound ticket.
Indicator: The device that shows the weight and sends it out on a data port. It is the true source of the number: when the reading passes from the indicator straight into a system, no clerk types it.
Gross weight: The weight of the vehicle while loaded, as the scale reads it when the truck stands fully on the platform.
Tare weight: The weight of the empty vehicle with no load. The gap between tare and gross is the net. A hand-written tare is a common source of discrepancies, so it is best captured from the scale in the same session.
Net weight: The weight of the goods alone: gross minus tare. It is the number accounting and stock are built on, so any error in it flows straight into the reports.
Weight ticket: The document that records one weighing: customer, material, plate, gross, tare, net and time. A good ticket carries a serial number, a verification code and the name of whoever recorded it.
Serial number: A running number, never repeated or reused, given to each ticket or permit. A gap in the numbering reveals a ticket that was deleted or never recorded.
Exit permit: A document that gathers a truck's tickets and is approved under a name; no vehicle leaves the gate without one. It is scanned once and a second scan is refused, so no load leaves undocumented.
Gate log: A record of every vehicle that enters and leaves the site, with its entry time and plate. Tying the gate to weighing turns the revealing question into one: which vehicle came in today and left without a permit?
Audit log: A record that does not allow deletion, logging every create, correction, cancellation and reprint under a name, a time and a reason. A correction is an addition, not a replacement, so the old value stays readable beside the new one.
Integrity check: A check that looks for structural contradictions in the record: a gap in the numbering, a permit used twice, a broken verification chain. It exposes tampering; it does not stop someone with database access from attempting it.
Fraud review: Stated arithmetic rules that review a past period of tickets and raise flags on what departs from the norm: a tare far from the vehicle's usual, or the same plate twice within minutes. A flag tells you where to look; it proves nothing by itself.
Calibration: Adjusting the scale against approved reference weights so it reads true. It is the scale owner's responsibility with a qualified technician, not the recording system's job: the system records what the indicator gives, so an out-of-calibration scale records an error precisely.
Stocktake and shortfall: A stocktake is counting the physical stock and comparing it with the balance computed from tickets. A shortfall is the gap when the physical count falls below the calculated one; some of it is normal, like moisture and spillage, and some is a warning worth investigating.
RS-232 (serial port): The most common data output on weighbridge indicators. Over it the reading reaches the computer moment by moment, usually through a USB adapter shown as a COM port.
Live board: A read-only screen that shows today's figures as they stand: total inbound and outbound, the vehicles on site, and the latest tickets. No weight is entered from it.
Entry method: A line on the ticket that says where the number came from: from the scale automatically, or typed by hand. Manual entry is a permission for breakdowns, and frequent manual entry by one operator is a flag in fraud review.
Inbound and outbound: Inbound is what enters the site as material, outbound is what leaves it. Each material's balance is inbound minus outbound, computed from finalized tickets alone.

Weighbridge terms, in plain definitions.