Why is the trading company's weight lower than mine?

The trading company's weight is usually lower because they weigh on a different scale, deduct for moisture, dirt and attachments, and weigh what arrives after loading and transit losses. A small, steady gap is normal. A gap that suddenly grows, or shows up only with one driver, one buyer or one material, is worth checking. Measure every delivery in kilos and percent, and record the load before it leaves.

This guide walks through each cause, shows how to work out the difference per delivery, explains how to choose your own review threshold, and lists what to write down at loading so you can raise a problem with your trading company using numbers instead of feelings.

Why do the two weights never match?

Two scales almost never agree to the kilo, and the kalakal itself changes between your yard and theirs. Most gaps come from a mix of the causes below, not just one.

• Moisture and dirt. Karton and dyaryo soak up rain, and bakal and yero carry mud and rust flakes. Some trading companies deduct a share for wet material, some weigh it after it dries, and some downgrade it. Either way, the water you bought by the kilo does not get paid by the kilo.
• Attachments and contamination. Tanso with insulation still on, motors with iron bases, aluminum with steel screws, plastik with labels and caps, bote with liquid inside. The buyer may remove these and pay only for the clean metal, or put the whole lot in a lower grade.
• Different scales and calibration. Your platform scale and their truck scale each have their own error. A scale that is not level, not zeroed, overloaded or worn will read high or low every time.
• Tara errors. If the truck was weighed empty with a full tank and weighed loaded with a half tank, or with the driver inside one time and outside the other, the net weight moves. The same goes for sacks, pallets and drums that are counted as kalakal on one side and as tara on the other.
• Losses in loading and transit. Loose pieces fall off, light karton blows away on an open truck, a few sacks get left behind in the yard, and small items stay stuck on the truck bed after unloading.
• Theft. A driver or helper can drop off sacks along the way, swap a sack of tanso for a sack of bakal, or a weigher on either side can misread or misrecord a ticket. This is the cause owners worry about most, and it is the one good records expose fastest.

Grading is part of why buyers deduct. The Scrap Specifications Circular, published by the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), which now operates as ReMA, is one grade book that scrap buyers refer to. Its 2017 nonferrous notice says No. 2 copper wire should be free of insulation, hair wire and brittle burnt wire, and that certain motor grades allow no excessive steel attachments. For paper, its 2021 update defines prohibitives as material that will make a pack unacceptable as the grade, and outthrows as papers that make the pack undesirable as the grade. Ask your trading company which grades and deduction rules it actually applies to you.

How do you measure the difference per delivery?

Work it out per material, not per truck. Trading companies usually weigh and price each material separately, so one total hides where the kilos went.

• Difference in kilos = your weight at loading minus the weight the buyer accepted.
• Difference in percent = difference in kilos divided by your weight, times 100.
• Difference in pesos = difference in kilos times your buying cost per kilo for that material.

Example, with round made-up numbers: you load 2,000 kg of karton and the trading company accepts 1,940 kg. The difference is 60 kg, which is 3% of your weight. If your average buying cost was ₱5 per kilo, that gap cost you ₱300. On the same truck you load 150 kg of tanso and they accept 147 kg. That is only 3 kg and 2%, but at an example cost of ₱400 per kilo it is ₱1,200, four times the karton loss.

That is why you track all three numbers. Percent tells you whether a gap is unusual for that material. Pesos tell you whether it is worth your time.

Keep a running list per buyer and per material: date, truck, driver, your kilos, their kilos, the difference in kilos, percent and pesos, and the reason the buyer gave for any deduction. After a few weeks you will see your own normal range.

What difference is normal, and when should you investigate?

There is no single official figure for an acceptable weight gap between a junkshop and a trading company. It depends on the material, the season, the scales and the buyer. Many shops set their own review threshold, a percent or kilo figure above which someone must look into the delivery before it is closed.

Here is one way to pick yours. Take your last 10 to 20 deliveries of one material to one buyer. Note the usual difference in percent. Set your threshold a little above the top of that usual range. Do this separately for each material, because wet-prone karton will always swing more than dry tansong dilaw. For expensive metals, add a peso threshold too, since a 2% gap on tanso can cost more than a 5% gap on dyaryo. Review the threshold every few months.

Signs that a gap needs a closer look, whatever your threshold:

• The gap jumps suddenly on a material that used to be steady.
• Big gaps happen only with one driver, one helper or one truck.
• Big gaps happen only with one trading company, or only at one of their branches.
• The buyer's ticket shows a lower weight but no deduction reason.
• The gap is larger on dry days than on rainy days, which moisture cannot explain.
• The number of sacks or bales they counted is lower than the number you loaded.

What should you record at loading?

You can only argue about kilos you can prove. Before the truck leaves, write down or photograph:

• Date and time of loading, and time the truck left.
• Truck plate number, driver and helper names.
• The trading company and the branch the load is going to.
• Each material with its weight, and how it was weighed: gross and tara, or several weighings added up.
• The tara you used for sacks, drums or pallets, and the empty truck weight if you weighed the whole truck.
• The number of sacks, bales or bundles per material.
• A photo of the scale display for each weighing, and a photo of the loaded truck.
• The condition of the load: dry or wet, cleaned or with attachments.
• The driver's signature or initials on the loading list.

At the other end, ask for the trading company's weigh ticket for every delivery, showing gross, tara and net per material, and each deduction with its reason. A ticket that shows only a final net figure is hard to check.

How do you check that your own scale is right?

Before you blame the buyer, rule out your own timbangan. Check that it sits level on a firm floor and reads zero when empty. Weigh something whose weight you already know from a sealed scale, at the start of the day and after heavy use. Do not load it beyond its capacity. If you have a large scale, check it at a light load and a heavy load, since a scale can be accurate at one and off at the other.

Cities test and seal business scales. In Quezon City, for example, the Weights and Measures Unit of the City Treasurer's Office says every person must have weights and measures used in business sealed before using them with the public. Its citizen's charter lists a sealing and registration fee of ₱100 for mechanical scales of 300 kg and below, ₱150 for mechanical scales above that, and ₱500 for digital scales, and its market inspections use calibrated test weights from DOST. Rules and fees differ by city; Quezon City is the only one checked for this guide. A sealed scale is also a stronger argument when you dispute a weight.

How do you raise it with the trading company?

Keep it about numbers. Most trading companies deal with many junkshops and respond better to a list than to an accusation.

• First, bring your records for the deliveries in question: your weights per material, scale photos, sack counts and the gap in kilos and percent.
• Then, ask for their weigh tickets for the same deliveries, with gross, tara, net and every deduction listed.
• Ask them to explain each deduction: how much for moisture, how much for attachments, and which grade they applied.
• Agree on deduction rules in writing for the future, for example how wet karton is handled and what counts as clean tanso.
• Ask to send one of your staff to watch a weighing, or to reweigh a disputed load before it is unloaded into their pile.
• If the gap stays high and their tickets cannot explain it, split a load between two buyers once and compare. The numbers will tell you whether the problem is on the road, at their scale or at yours.

If the cause turns out to be on your side, such as a helper on the truck, the same records show it. Change the crew, seal or count sacks before departure, and keep comparing.

Can software track delivery weight differences?

ScrapTrack, the junkshop system by Orvyn Solutions, records each delivery to a trading company with your weight and the weight the buyer accepted, flags the difference, and tracks what each trading company still owes you. Purchases are recorded at the scale as numbered tickets, with an optional photo of the scale display, and every change is kept in an audit trail. It does not decide what difference is acceptable for you, and it does not check your scale. A demo is available.

Sources

• Sealing of Weights and Measures, Quezon City Citizen's Charter, Quezon City Government (quezoncity.gov.ph). Checked October 7, 2026.
• Public notice: ReMA proposed specification changes for nonferrous scrap metal, ReMA, Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (recycledmaterials.org). Checked October 7, 2026.
• ReMA releases updates to the Scrap Specifications Circular with changes to nonferrous specifications and guidelines for paper stock, ReMA, Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (recycledmaterials.org). Checked October 7, 2026.