What is a Trade Approved Scale, and Do I Need One?
If you’re involved with any kind of trade or retail, you need to know about trade approval and trade approved scales. This blog will discuss what trade approval is, the difference between trade approved and price computing scales and why you might want a trade approved scale anyways. Let’s begin!
What is Trade Approval?
If a scale or balance is trade approved — also known as legal-for-trade — that means, with strict extra testing, it’s been proven to be accurate and precise enough to be used commercially. Specifically, to set prices for goods based on their weight. Testing and approvals are performed by regional government entities. In South Africa, that’s the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS).
You and your business are legally required to use a trade approved scale when pricing by weight. If you’re caught pricing by weight without one, you could face heavy fines or, depending on how egregious the violation, prison time.
Once you know what trade approval is, it’s easy to pick out scales or balances that offer it. On Scaletec, we offer five scale ranges with NRCS trade approval. Each product lists how it can be legally utilized for pricing goods based on weight!
Trade Approved Scales vs. Price Computing Scales
When browsing for scales, you may notice that there are trade approved scales and there are price computing scales like Adam Equipment’s Swift. Price computing scales are also trade approved, so both non-price computing scales and price computing scales can be used to price by weight.
However, price computing scales come with a few extra features that make it easier to price by weight than some other legal-for-trade scales.
Three Displays
The Swift Price Computing Retail Scale offers three displays on both the front and rear of the scale. There’s one to display the Total Weight, one for Unit Price and one for Price to Pay. These clearly labelled displays - with the same information on the front and rear screens - keep transactions transparent between you and your customer.
When a customer comes up with a product, all you need to do is weigh it and the Swift will automatically calculate how much the customer should pay based on the stored price per unit weight.
PLUs
When time is of the essence in a retail environment, you don’t want to have to remember the unit prices per weight of all the products you offer. Maybe you write them down in a reference sheet somewhere, but then you’re stuck flipping through to find the right product and then subject to human error typing in the right numbers!
Adam’s Swift Price Computing Scales save up to 161 prices per weight in its internal memory. All you do is type in a short one-, two- or three-digit code to pull up the right product – it’s a much simpler process!
Dedicated Buttons
Many scales and balances have a few multi-purpose buttons for simplicities sake. Swift isn’t designed to be simple; it’s designed to function as intuitively as possible. This includes a full numeric keypad for typing in unit prices and weights and a button to search through and add to the PLU network. These are both more efficient and reduce the learning curve during training.
Dual Range
Swift is a dual range price computing scale, which means it’s able to display two different readabilities depending on how much weight is on the pan. For example, the SWZ 6D model has two capacities (3kg and 6kg) and two readabilities (0.001kg and 0.002kg). When there’s 3kg or less weight on the pan, the display will automatically use the finer 0.001kg readability. Above 3kg and up to 6kg, the display will use the 0.002kg readability.
This feature is intended to increase the versatility of Swift, as you can take advantage of both fine readabilities and higher capacities depending on which would be more beneficial.
Why Else Might I Want a Trade Approved Scale?
Some companies invest in trade approved scales even though they don’t intend to price by weight. Trade approval also acts as government-endorsed proof that your scale or balance is accurate. Those who are performing higher-risk weighing tasks or those of high importance may want a legal-for-trade model as an extra assurance of accuracy.
To summarize, you’ll need a trade approved scale if you:
- Price by weight
- Want governmental assurance that your scale is accurate
And you'll want a price computing scale specifically if you enjoy:
- Not calculating the price your customer should pay yourself
- Both you and your customer being able to see the total weight, unit price and price to pay on three different screens
- Using a full numeric keypad to easily key in weights, prices and PLU numbers
- Getting more versatility out of your scale with an automatic dual range function
To help you decide, contact the Scaletec team, we'll be happy to help.