How to work with the weight of a shipment
One of the core functions of EasyCargo, is to monitor the weight of the entire shipment, as well as on individual axles, to avoid overloading your vehicle.
Therefore, it is important to pay attention to the correct parameter settings used for the calculation. Remember, the correct units must be used for relevant results. You can find these settings in the user profile. We have made a separate video for working with cargo spaces. You will get a lot of information from it.
First, let's explain the weight values in the cargo space info panel. The first value is the total load capacity of the selected cargo space. The second value shows the total weight of all cargo items from the cargo items list. The last entry is the weight of the actual loaded cargo and the percentage of possible space utilization. You can choose from a wide range of predefined vehicle types, including ones with a different number and combination of axles, and you can even customize them to suit your needs.
Now, we will show you how to set the load values according to your vehicle.
First, select the type of cargo space, and enter the maximum amount of weight possible that the cargo space can hold. Then, for each axle of your vehicle, enter the following dimensions: the distance from the front of the trailer, the tare weight, and the maximum load capacity. Beware! As a general rule of thumb, the values are not the same for all axles. Finally, save your changes, and you can load the items you need. In the weight distribution panel, you can see the total load of your vehicle. Each arrow can also display the minimum, current, and maximum possible load on each axle. You can see how much margin you have for a maximum load. This margin is also shown graphically by the transparent part of the arrow. This representation is at all important points of the cargo space and you can also check the balance of the right and left sides.
When planning the transport of very heavy items, it is possible that with the standard calculation settings, only part of the shipment will be loaded, even though the free space will not be fully used. If you change the Weight limit settings to Ignore weight limits when loading, the load may fit into the selected cargo space, but the vehicle could be overloaded. This being said, if you turn on Shift loaded items to mass center in the adjacent menu, the calculation is adjusted, which can lead to loading more items even within the specified weight limits that would be exceeded with the default settings.
You can see that the load has been moved so that its center of gravity is the same as the center of gravity of the cargo space, which also leads to a better load balance. The exact distance can be seen here and will also be stated in the print report. Please remember that the shipment must be secured properly to prevent it from moving during transport.
In this video, we've shown that setting up functions that work with a shipment's weight gives you many more options for transporting everything you need.