Major changes to international shipping rules introduced earlier this year mean exporters are required to verify the weight of every container shipped.
Bison founders Mark and Greg Fahey developed what they believed to be a world-first portable container-weighing scale, which was launched last year.
Now they have announced the launch of another world-first system, Bison C-Legs, for weighing containers on trailer chassis.
The rule change added cost and complexity to container shipping operations and many shippers had to adopt inefficient or poorly timed weighing processes, such as hauling containers extra distances to offsite weighbridges or weighing every single cargo item before it was loaded into the container.
Bison C-Legs solved that problem, as the system equipped shippers to accurately weigh containers on chassis in any location, chief technical officer Dr Mark Fahey said.
Bison C-Legs were self-contained scales that attached to and lifted a container just clear of the chassis, then transmitted the gross container weight via Bluetooth to a smartphone application. It confirmed the container’s weight distribution, captured photographs and shipment details and sent weight certificates and related data via email.
It was targeted at exporters and logistics companies needing to weigh containers outside ports and other high-volume container hubs.
The latest innovation built on the success of C-Jacks, Bison’s portable system for weighing grounded shipping containers, which was now being used in more than 20 countries, chief executive Greg Fahey said.
There had been a strong pull for a similar solution to weigh containers on chassis, especially from Europe and North America, where chassis-based loading was mainstream.
"C-Legs are really a market-led innovation," Mr Fahey said.
Bison will mark the C-Leg launch, plus the opening of a new sales office in Europe, by displaying its weighing hardware and data management systems at the Intermodal Europe exhibition in Rotterdam in mid-November.
Staff numbers at Bison, which won the rising star category in the Deloitte Fast 50 regional awards last month, have gone from three to 9.5 this year. There were plans for more products to be released over the next year but the focus right now was on consolidating what the company had built and brought to market to date.
"We saw an opportunity some years in advance and it’s played out as we expected," Mr Fahey said.
Bison recently moved to new premises in the old Emerson’s building.
