Weighbridge software: automated weighing with plate recognition and ERP
Weighbridge software, as Mirage builds it, turns the scale into an automated control point: a camera reads the plate as the truck arrives, the system checks it against the expected movements and orders in your ERP or TMS, captures the first and second weighing from the scale indicator, computes the net weight, checks it against the declared load, and flags anything that does not reconcile before the ticket is issued. It connects to the scale, cameras and ERP already on site; no standalone weighing application replaces them.
The problem
The weighbridge sits at the intersection between physical movements and digital records. Trucks arrive, operators identify vehicles, check authorisations, record weights, reconcile orders and validate movements. Much of this is still done by hand, from the scale indicator to a ticket to a spreadsheet to the ERP.
Every retyped weight is a chance for a wrong tonne, and every movement reconciled after the fact is a dispute found weeks later: a load that left heavier than its order, a truck that was never expected, a ticket that does not match the delivery note.
What we deploy
A system that connects the weighbridge with cameras, licence-plate recognition, trucks, orders, GPS, ERP or TMS and site-specific business rules to automate vehicle identification, weighing, validation and reconciliation. It plugs into the scale indicator, the cameras and the ERP or TMS already on site rather than requiring a new standalone weighing application.
Inputs, outputs, systems
| Reads | Produces | Connected through |
|---|---|---|
| Camera frames at the entry and on the deck | Plate read and matched to the vehicle master; unknown or unexpected plates flagged | IP cameras with licence-plate recognition, existing or installed |
| Weight from the scale indicator, first and second weighing | Gross, tare and net per ticket, with the time of each weighing and the indicator's stable-weight signal | Serial, Ethernet or the scale software's export |
| Expected movements: orders, deliveries, pickups, contracts | Each weighing matched to its order; a movement with no order, or an order with no movement, flagged | ERP or TMS API, or the Mirage quarry TMS |
| Declared load: product, quantity, customer, carrier | Net weight against declared quantity, within the tolerance set per product; over or under flagged | The order record, or the delivery note read as a document |
| GPS position of the truck before and after | Confirmation that the truck came from the loading point it claims and left for its destination | Telematics provider, where the fleet carries units |
| Site rules: hours, authorised carriers, maximum axle loads, blacklists | The exceptions those rules define, routed to the weighbridge operator or site manager | Agreed with your team |
Outputs are the validated ticket and the reconciled movement, written back to the ERP or TMS, plus an exception queue. The ticket itself is still issued by your weighing software where regulations require it.
How it works
Computer vision reads the plate as the truck arrives and matches it against expected movements and authorisations. The weighbridge indicator feeds the first and second weighing directly into the system, which checks the resulting net weight against the declared load and the associated order. Inconsistencies, an unauthorised vehicle, a declared load that does not match the weighed tonnage, a movement with no matching order, are flagged for the operator before the ticket is issued instead of being reconciled after the fact.
One weighing, worked through
An illustrative example with invented figures, to show what the operator sees for one truck. Nothing here is a client's data.
| Step | What the system did | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 07:42, arrival | Camera reads plate 12345-A-6; matched to carrier Atlas Transport, truck 17 | Known vehicle, authorised today |
| Expected movement | One open order for this truck: 30 t of 0/20 aggregate for customer Nord Béton, loading at stockpile 3 | Matched to order 88213 |
| First weighing, empty | Indicator stable at 14,860 kg | Tare recorded; within 2% of the truck's registered tare |
| Loading | GPS shows 11 minutes inside the stockpile 3 geofence | Consistent with the order |
| Second weighing, loaded | Indicator stable at 46,120 kg | Gross recorded |
| Net and check | 46,120 − 14,860 = 31,260 kg, against 30,000 kg ordered | +4.2%, above the 3% tolerance set for this product |
| Decision | Ticket held; operator sees the two weights, the order and the camera frames | Operator confirms the overload is accepted by the customer, or sends the truck back to the stockpile |
A truck with no open order, a plate not in the carrier list or a net weight far from the declared quantity follows the same path: held with its evidence, decided by a person, logged.
Operational interface
- Truck arrives → plate recognised → authorisation checked
- First weighing → loading or unloading → second weighing
- Reconciliation → validated movement, or a held ticket with its evidence
- Live queue and live weights
- Vehicle history, product, anomalies and associated orders
What to look for in weighbridge software
| Criterion | What to ask | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Identification | Plate recognition, RFID, driver card, or an operator typing the plate? | Typing is where tickets go wrong; recognition with a fallback is the usual answer |
| Scale connection | Does it read the indicator's stable-weight signal directly, or is the weight keyed in? | A keyed weight can be edited; a read weight is evidence |
| Order matching | Does each weighing have to match an open order in the ERP or TMS before a ticket is issued? | Unmatched movements are where losses and disputes start |
| Tolerances | Can the net-against-declared tolerance be set per product and per customer? | Aggregates, cereals and scrap do not tolerate the same variance |
| Exceptions | Where does a held ticket go, with what evidence, and who clears it? | A flag nobody sees is a ticket issued anyway |
| Write-back | Does the validated movement reach the ERP or TMS without retyping? | The retyping is the error the project was meant to remove |
| Legal metrology | Is the certified weighing instrument and its ticket left untouched? | The system should sit around the certified indicator, not replace it |
How it is deployed
Forward-deployed: engineers on your site, with the weighbridge operators and the dispatch team. The proof of concept usually runs on a month of tickets and the matching orders, so you see which movements would have been held before any camera is installed.
- First reply
- Within two business hours, from an engineer.
- Proof of concept
- On your own data (a telematics export, a transaction log, weighbridge tickets, dispatch records), one week after the first meeting.
- Pilot
- Fixed price, on one site or one fleet, with Mirage engineers deployed with your team. You can stop after it.
- Production
- The first workflow runs in 4 to 6 weeks. A system that spans several sites or a lot of field equipment is scoped at the first meeting and can take longer.
- After go-live
- Mirage operates, monitors and improves the system in production; your team keeps the decision on every exception. More than 200 systems have been connected so far.
- Price
- An annual subscription priced by volume after the pilot, from $10,000 to launch and $1,000 a month, quoted in the first conversation.
Sites with compatible indicators, cameras already in place and an accessible ERP or TMS connect fastest; where cameras or plate recognition have to be installed, that work is scoped at the first meeting. Mirage has not published a weighbridge deployment on its own; the weighbridge runs as one module of the quarry and mining systems described on this site.
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