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Commercial Weighing Business Models

TruLoad supports two distinct commercial weighing business models. Understanding which model applies to your organisation determines how billing, fees, and transaction workflows are configured.

Business model vs. industry vertical

The business model (Model 1 or Model 2, below) is a separate setting from your organisation's industry vertical (quarry, waste management, factory, logistics, etc., set under Setup > Settings). The vertical only affects cosmetic labelling and report scoping — it is the Weighing Business Model setting alone that actually turns invoicing on or off. A quarry, for example, is Model 1 the moment it bills anyone (a client, a hauler) for weighing services, and Model 2 only if every weighing is purely internal tracking with nothing invoiced. See "Choosing the Right Model" below rather than assuming a model from the vertical alone.

Model 1 — Third-Party Weighbridge (Fee-per-Transaction)

In this model, the weighbridge operator provides weighing services to external transporters and charges a fee for each transaction.

How it works

flowchart LR
    A[Transporter arrives] --> B[Operator captures weight]
    B --> C[Net weight calculated]
    C --> D[Weighing fee invoiced to transporter]
    D --> E[Payment collected via gateway]
    E --> F[Final ticket printed]

Characteristics

Attribute Value
Weighing fee Charged per completed transaction, using the tariff rule system described below
Invoice Generated automatically once a rule's billing period elapses (immediately, or rolled up daily/weekly/monthly)
Payment gateway Treasury or direct payment at weighbridge
Transporter portal Fully applicable — transporters access their own records
Platform subscription Charged to the weighbridge operator

How the weighing fee is actually determined: tariff rules

The flat Weighing Fee (KES) under Setup > Settings > Commercial is a zero-config fallback, not the primary mechanism. Most Model 1 operators instead define one or more tariff rules on Setup > Tariffs, each specifying:

  • Scope — either a specific transporter's contract rate, or a bracket matched by vehicle type, axle count range, gross weight range, and/or cargo/material type. A transporter contract rule always wins over any bracket rule; among bracket rules, the most specific match wins.
  • Cargo/material type — optional, and combinable with either scope above. Real weighbridge and quarry billing routinely charges different rates per material — a quarry pricing ballast higher than sand, a waste facility pricing hazardous waste higher than general waste. Also lets a contract transporter be priced differently per material under the same contract.
  • Rate basis — how the fee amount is applied: PerTonne (fee × net weight in tonnes — the default for new rules, since most commercial tenants bill by tonnage), PerKg (fee × net weight in kg), or Flat (a fixed amount per matching weighing, regardless of tonnage).
  • Minimum charge — optional, for PerTonne/PerKg rules. A floor for small loads, then the per-tonne/per-kg rate above it — a standard tipping-fee pattern (e.g. municipal transfer stations commonly charge a flat minimum for loads under a small threshold, then a per-tonne rate above).
  • Billing period — when the fee is actually invoiced: Immediate (one invoice per weighing, right when it completes — the original behaviour) or Daily/Weekly/Bi-weekly/Monthly/ Quarterly/Yearly (the fee accrues instead, and every accrual for the same organisation, billed party, and period is rolled into ONE invoice once that period elapses — e.g. a client who settles with a transporter monthly on aggregated tonnage).
  • Bill To (if different) — optional. Bills a distinct commissioning client instead of the vehicle's own transporter — see "Billing on behalf of a client" in the Setup guide. This is how a quarry or mining operation that extracts/hauls for a client (rather than for its own account) bills that client on aggregated tonnage, regardless of which hauling company's trucks were actually weighed — matching how mining/haulage contracts are billed in practice: unit-price per tonne verified against the weighbridge, not per invoice-issuer.

Combining these five dimensions covers the commercial weighing billing patterns actually seen in practice — see "Billing Patterns by Vertical" below for worked examples per industry.

When a weighing matches no tariff rule, the organisation's flat CommercialWeighingFeeKes value applies instead, exactly as before — this keeps existing, unclassified organisations behaving identically to prior versions of TruLoad.

Configuration

  1. Navigate to Setup > Tariffs to define one or more tariff rules (label, scope, fee, rate basis, and billing period) — see above.
  2. Navigate to Setup > Settings > Commercial and set Weighing Business Model to Third-Party Weighbridge.
  3. Enter the Weighing Fee (KES) — the fallback amount charged when no tariff rule matches a weighing. Set this even if you configure tariff rules, so unmatched weighings are never billed at zero unintentionally.
  4. The Payment Gateway is configured by the platform administrator.

Who uses this model

  • Commercial public weighbridges
  • Port authority weighbridges
  • Highway weighbridges operated by private concessionaires
  • Third-party logistics hubs
  • Quarry, mining, or waste-management operations that bill someone for the weighing — a hauler paying per load, or a client the operation extracts/hauls/disposes on behalf of (see "Billing on behalf of a client" above). The quarry/mining/waste label doesn't determine the model; billing anyone for weighing does.

Model 2 — Facility-Owned Scale (In-House Weighing)

In this model, the organisation owns or operates the weighbridge exclusively for its own fleet — no external transporters pay a per-transaction fee.

How it works

flowchart LR
    A[Truck arrives at factory/quarry gate] --> B[Operator captures weight]
    B --> C[Net weight calculated]
    C --> D[No per-transaction fee]
    D --> E[Final ticket printed for inventory/dispatch records]

Characteristics

Attribute Value
Weighing fee None — no per-transaction charge
Invoice Not generated for weighing transactions
Payment gateway Not applicable
Transporter portal Optional — only needed if external haulers deliver to the site
Platform subscription Charged to the facility owner (same as Model 1)

Configuration

  1. Navigate to Setup > Settings > Commercial.
  2. Set Weighing Business Model to Facility-Owned Scale.
  3. Leave the Weighing Fee at zero or unset — the system will skip invoice generation.

Who uses this model

  • Factories weighing inbound raw materials and outbound finished goods for their own account
  • Quarry and mining operations tracking their own fleet's payload per shift, with nothing invoiced to an external hauler or client
  • Grain depots receiving and dispatching bulk commodities for their own account
  • Waste management facilities tracking internal tipping volumes with no billed party

If any of the above starts billing a hauler or client for the weighing, switch to Model 1 — the vertical doesn't change, only the business model setting does.

Billing Patterns by Vertical

Real-world weighbridge, quarry, and waste-management billing follows a handful of recurring patterns. Configure the tariff rule fields above to match whichever applies:

Scenario Model Tariff configuration
Public/commercial weighbridge charging any transporter per trip Model 1 A bracket rule, Flat rate basis, Immediate billing — e.g. a fixed fee per weighing regardless of tonnage.
Quarry selling material by tonnage, different rates per material (sand vs. ballast vs. hardcore) Model 1 One rule per Cargo/Material Type, PerTonne rate basis. A Minimum Charge floor guards against near-zero invoices for very small loads.
Waste transfer station with a tipping fee that varies by waste category (general, construction, hazardous, recyclables) Model 1 One rule per Cargo/Material Type (mapped to your waste categories), PerTonne rate basis, Minimum Charge set — mirrors how municipal transfer stations publish per-category, per-tonne gate fees with a minimum for small loads.
Factory weighing its own inbound/outbound cargo, no external billing at all Model 2 No tariff rules needed — weighing fee is off entirely. The factory only pays the platform subscription (see below).
A private company contracted to mine/haul/dispose on behalf of a client (a government agency, a landowner, a waste authority), billed by tonnage regardless of which of its own trucks did the work Model 1 Bill To (if different) set to the client, PerTonne or PerKg rate basis, Billing Period often Monthly to match contract payment cycles — mirrors real mining/haulage contracts, which are typically paid on unit-price-per-tonne verified against the weighbridge, not against a specific invoice-issuing entity.
A transporter contract with a negotiated flat or per-tonne rate, same rate for everything they haul Model 1 Transporter Contract Rate set to that transporter, no cargo type — the contract rule wins over any bracket rule.
The same contract transporter, but priced differently depending on what they're hauling Model 1 Transporter Contract Rate set to that transporter, plus Cargo/Material Type set on each rule — one rule per material at that transporter's negotiated rate for it.

Choosing the Right Model

Question Model 1 Model 2
Do you charge external transporters per weighing? Yes No
Do trucks belong to your own fleet? Sometimes Usually
Do you need payment collection at the weighbridge? Yes No
Do you issue payment invoices to transporters? Yes No
Is your weighbridge your core business? Yes No (it supports your core business)

Treasury / GL Linkage

When Payment gateway is set to Treasury, Model 1 weighing-fee invoices post as real treasury Invoices (invoice_type="commercial_weighing_fee") in your own organisation's book — not the platform's. Settlement account resolution (BankAccount.DefaultInvoiceTypes) and GL account mapping (GLAccountMapping) are both scoped strictly to your tenant, so your weighing-fee revenue can never be routed into another tenant's account or the platform's own subscription book, and vice versa. Configure your settlement bank account for commercial_weighing_fee under Setup > Payments (or Banking > Accounts) — this is self-service; no platform operator action is required. Model 2 organisations generate no weighing invoices, so nothing posts to GL for weighing transactions regardless of Treasury access.

The platform subscription fee (below) is entirely separate: it always posts to the platform's own book (invoice_type="subscription"), regardless of your business model or vertical.

Platform Subscription (Both Models)

Regardless of business model, TruLoad charges the organisation a platform subscription fee. This covers:

  • Access to the weighing module
  • Reporting and analytics
  • Transporter portal (if enabled)
  • API access (if enabled)

See the Billing & Plans section for available plans and feature entitlements.

Switching models

Changing the business model setting only affects new transactions. Previously invoiced weighings are not retroactively changed.