What is a freight reweigh?
What is a freight reweigh? It is a carrier putting your shipment on a certified scale to check it against the weight you declared, and rebilling the difference if the two do not agree.
What is a freight reweigh triggered by
Most large LTL terminals now weigh freight automatically as it moves through, using in-line scales on the forklifts or the dock. It is not a special inspection, it is routine, and it happens on ordinary shipments every day.
The rebill follows when the scale disagrees with the bill of lading. It arrives as an adjustment weeks after delivery, which is why the invoice and the quote so often fail to match.
How to avoid one
Weigh the freight rather than estimating it, and include the pallet, the wrap and the dunnage. A 40 pound pallet times six is 240 pounds of weight people routinely forget.
Round up rather than down. Declaring slightly over costs a few dollars on the quote. Declaring under costs the correction plus, on many tariffs, the loss of the discount on the difference.
Related terms
Quick answers
Can I dispute a reweigh?
Yes, and it is worth doing when your own certified scale ticket disagrees. Keep the weight ticket from your dock and send it with the dispute.
Does a reweigh change my freight class?
Not by itself, but it can. Class is driven by density, so a weight correction on the same dimensions moves the density and may move the class with it.
Tired of invoice surprises?
We pre-audit the bill of lading before pickup, so what is a freight reweigh costs you is a question that mostly stops coming up.