Officials with the Utah Weights and Measures Program announced a dramatic increase in the accuracy of commercial-use scales today.
Of the more than 300 inspections conducted this year, 83% of scales met the proper standards. Actually that number has already improved. Brett Gurney is the Weights and Measures Program Manager.
“The inspections that—and the scales that we found that were not in compliance –we’ve already conducted follow-up inspections, and we have found them to be in compliance,” he says.
Accurate scales are crucial to ensuring consumers aren’t charged for things unfairly, like gasoline or precious metals. The price of gold fluctuates frequently. Earlier this year the Weights and Measures program estimated that customers could be shorted nearly $29 dollars per transaction due to inaccurate scales. Gurney says consumers should pay close attention when a product is weighed.
“The customer should be able to read what the scale is indicating. You should be able to look at it and identify—yeah, they started at a clear zero point, this is the weight, this is how much it weighs, this is the cost.”
Gurney says that efforts to educate regulatory agencies, law enforcement, and merchants are responsible for the increase in scale accuracy.