Portable scales, unbeatable in court

摘要

In order for laws about the weight of trucks to be effectively enforced it is necessary for vehicle scales to be accurate, properly certified and correctly used, as the police in Israel have discovered. Finding the ideal penalty for individuals or companies who break the law is a hard job. If the penalty is not high enough then violators might continue to break the rules. If it is too severe, the accused might be encouraged to mount costly, protracted legal challenges. This is what has happened with law enforcement for overloaded trucks in Israel. For a slight overloading, of up to 10% above the permitted total allowable weight, a fine of NIS 500 (US$145) is so low that the carriers often opt to pay the fine and drive further overloaded, because their business is still viable. On the other hand, when the load is over 25% more than permitted, the penalty is that the vehicle is completely disabled and the driver's licence revoked, both for 30 days. In these cases the vast majority of drivers resort to looking for failures in the measurement process to escape the penalty, pleading the weighing is not reliable or the measurement process was not adequate.