About Tally Clerk

TallyClerk was formed in 1998 with the aim of developing a solution for the accurate tally of movement of aggregate and spoil being moved onto, off and around earthworks sites. The need for such a product came from the civil construction industry where engineering materials for the construction of roadways, subdivisions, landfills, building sites etc are tendered, scheduled and paid for using volume measures. These materials are generally carted by truck and trailer, and volumetric truck measure is a standard measure for the monitoring or trading of bulk quantities.

Up until this time there was no satisfactory means of measuring load volumes quickly and accurately. Quarries, cartage companies and construction contractors have traditionally used weight as their trade measure. Load volumes are computed from assumed bulk densities (mass/volume ratios), but this method can be inaccurate. It is also labour intensive and time consuming for the contractor who receives product purchased by volume measure to manually level and check each truck load. Read about Volumetric Truck Measure for more on these issues. The idea was explored to develop a system that was able measure the volume of every load quickly and accurately, and additionally record date, time, vehicle operator and job details for docket or invoice generation.

The Load Volume Scanner (LVS) is the result of this research and development project. A prototype unit was extensively trialed at an Auckland site during the 1998/99 construction season, monitoring the movement of 150,000 m3 of fill material from the site in truck & trailer units.

TallyClerk has continued to develop the LVS product. Since initial development the LVS format has been extended to include portable, semi-portable and fixed gantry models. The range of measurable load materials and truck types has been extended. LVS devices are successfully operated on a full spectrum of truck and trailer designs including on-road truck and trailer units, semi-trailers and centre-dumpers, as well as off-road articulated dumpers and quarry trucks. The LVS design for conventional truck and trailer units has been approved for trade use within New Zealand by the New Zealand government's Measurement and Product Safety Service (MAPSS). Patents have also been granted for the LVS design.

The LVS is now proven technology and TallyClerk is rapidly gaining recognition in the civil construction, quarrying and bark products industries. Our scanners are working in quarries, sand-pits, construction sites and bark product manufacturing around New Zealand and Australia. Load Volume Scanners are now manufactured and tested at our facility in Hamilton, New Zealand.

Future projects for TallClerk may involve applying the same technology used in our Load Volume Scanners for trucks to other applications, such as:

• Log-load measurement on logging trucks (forestry)
• Bulk measurement in train hoppers (coal for example)
• Slag/Waste measurement in bins/hoppers (steel production for example)