Trucking Industry
5 Things to Consider When Choosing a Weigh Station Bypass Service
October 30, 2017
If you’re in the market to purchase a weigh station bypass service for your fleet, you know that there’s a lot of value in weigh station bypasses, from saving time and money, to keeping drivers happy and safe on the road. All bypass programs provide these core benefits (albeit to different degrees), so you might be asking yourself “what else should I consider in my search for a weigh station bypass provider?”
Here’s 5 suggestions to get you started:
1. Coverage
Start by thinking about where your vehicles regularly drive, and then find out if the bypass service you’re considering has bypass coverage in that state, or at sites along a particular route.
For example, if your drivers are operating throughout the lower 48, you’ll want to choose a program that supports the most number of states, so you’re giving your drivers as many bypass opportunities as possible.
However, if you only drive within one or two states, or a particular corridor, you will want to find out which bypass service supports the most sites along those particular routes. Take North Carolina for example: PrePass supports 2 sites, whereas Drivewyze supports 16 sites – so if your drivers travel extensively throughout this state, there’s a better chance of them getting a bypass opportunity if they’re using Drivewyze.
Here’s a table showing some of the most popular weigh station bypass services, and their supported state and site count:
| Bypass Service | Supported States | Supported Sites |
| Drivewyze PreClear | 43 | 701 |
| PrePass | 32 | 331 |
| NORPASS | 7 | 43 |
| NCPass | 1 | 11 |
Each company has a coverage map and site list on their website, so you can easily compare.
Hint: If you want to learn more about where your trucks are traveling, being pulled in, and how much time they’re wasting at scales, Drivewyze’s free Weigh Station Activity Report can show you – to get yours, start by selecting your device type here, and filling out the form.
2. Driver Experience
When you’re planning on implementing any new technology, it’s important to consider the end-user experience. In this case, your drivers. So here are some user experience questions to ask your drivers when considering bypass services:
- Is the service intuitive?
- Is the service easy to use?
- How much training is required?
- How does the product’s experience compare to other options?
Consider the fact that some weigh station bypass services, such as Drivewyze, offer a free trial. With the trial, you can ask a handful of your drivers to test the product for a couple of weeks and then provide you with feedback. This allows the drivers to get past the learning curve, and experience the bypass service in everyday scenarios. A positive driver experience is a very important aspect of any technology investment, and if you do your homework, it will almost certainly pay off in the long run.
3. Customer Support
The quality of customer support should be of high importance when considering any kind of in-cab service, including weigh station bypass. We suggest finding out if the service provides fleet support only during certain days and hours, or if it’s 24/7/365 support. Response time is also an important aspect to consider – are issues often solved right away, or does the company take a long time to respond? As well, if the service has physical infrastructure (transponder-reader poles), how do they deal with infrastructure issues when they arise?
Quality of customer support goes beyond solving technical issues. Though it’s rare, sometimes a driver can get pulled over even when they’ve been granted a legal bypass. Be sure to ask the weigh station bypass service provider how they deal with this type of scenario – the last thing you want is a company that doesn’t stand up for your drivers.
You may also want to see if the bypass provider you’re considering will let you can speak to a current customer It is always important to speak with current customers about their customer support experiences. Is their feedback positive, or negative?
If you have many drivers to train and onboard, you’ll also want to know that the bypass company has a training and onboarding process in place, and can help you implement the new service. Some questions you could ask include:
- Do you have training materials that I can hand out to my drivers?
- If my drivers lose those materials, is there a way to find this information online?
- What are best practices for getting all my drivers onboarded?
- Would someone at the bypass company be willing to present information to my drivers?
It is a daunting task to adopt new technology in any business, and you want your rollout to be as smooth as possible. Make sure the bypass service prover you choose is ready and willing to help you through your onboarding process.
4. Reporting and Business Intelligence
When you’re investing in a bypass service, it’s always best if you can provide accurate and actionable data that will help prove your return on investment (ROI). At a basic level, most bypass providers will provide you with a report that shows the number of bypasses your fleet has received, and an estimate of how much money you’ve saved, so you can determine your return on investment.
This is important information, but some providers can give you much more data than just a bypass quantity. Ask the bypass provider if you can view a sample report, so you can see exactly what data the bypass company delivers. As an example, Drivewyze provides GPS-based data – showing you where your drivers are being pulled in the most, and which sites are pulling your drivers in the longest. Drivewyze reporting can also show you your hours saved (based on historical data from each site), and the actual time your trucks waste as scales every month.
Reporting and business intelligence can add a lot of value above and beyond bypasses, so be sure to ask the bypass service provider what kind of actionable data they can provide to help you improve your business.
5. Value
It goes without saying that cost and value are two large deciding factors when you’re evaluating weigh station bypass options.
Of course, you’ll want to get the best price possible. However, don’t discount the overall value offered in each service. You may consider paying more up-front if the bypass provider offers better:
- Reporting
- Convenience
- Technology
- Bypass opportunities
- Time savings
Then it is well worth considering a more expensive option, when the additional benefits outweigh the additional cost. It’s also important to consider some less obvious value-adds such as:
- Dedicated customer support
- Time savings beyond bypass (for example, more on-time deliveries – which means happier customers)
- Money savings beyond bypass (for instance, Drivewyze eliminates transponder inventory)
These value-adds can often deliver an even better ROI than just bypasses alone!
Final Word
That’s it, our top 5 things to consider when you’re looking for a weigh station bypass service. We hope this list will help you evaluate the various weigh station bypass services available. We hope that you find the right bypass service for your fleet!
Click here to learn more about Drivewyze for Fleets.