Act No. 345

Public Acts of 2008

Approved by the Governor

December 23, 2008

Filed with the Secretary of State

December 23, 2008

EFFECTIVE DATE: December 23, 2008

STATE OF MICHIGAN

94TH LEGISLATURE

REGULAR SESSION OF 2008

Introduced by Reps. Mayes, Accavitti, Acciavatti, Angerer, Ball, Bieda, Booher, Brandenburg, Brown, Byrum, Clack, Espinoza, Farrah, Gonzales, Hammel, Hammon, Hansen, Horn, Robert Jones, David Law, Lemmons, McDowell, Moolenaar, Opsommer, Palsrok, Pavlov, Polidori, Sak, Schuitmaker, Sheltrown, Spade, Steil and Vagnozzi

ENROLLED HOUSE BILL No. 6604

AN ACT to amend 1964 PA 283, entitled "An act to regulate and provide standards for weights and measures, and the packaging and advertising of certain commodities; to provide for a state director and other officials and to prescribe their powers and duties; to provide a fee system for certain inspections and tests; to provide penalties for fraud and deception in the use of false weights and measures and other violations; and to repeal certain acts and parts of acts," (MCL 290.601 to 290.634) by adding section 28d.

The People of the State of Michigan enact:

Sec. 28d. (1) Notwithstanding any requirements adopted under section 28c, the gross weight of a vehicle shall be determined by weighing the vehicle in a single measurement for a vehicle that is not a tractor-trailer combination and not by adding the results of multiple measurements taken at opposite ends of the vehicle. The gross weight of any tractor-trailer combination shall be determined by the method described in subsection (2).

(2) The gross weight combination of a truck tractor with multiple trailers shall be determined without uncoupling and by using a method of split weighing and combining the measurements, if necessary, under the following conditions:

(a) The brakes on the tractor and trailers shall be released.

(b) There shall be no tension on the draw bar.

(c) The approaches to the scale shall be straight and on the same level as the scale.

(d) The approaches to the scale shall be of sufficient width and length to ensure level positioning of the coupled vehicles during weighing.

(3) A scale used to weigh vehicles under subsection (2) shall be tested at least annually by weighing a coupled tractor with multiple trailers as a single unit and comparing that weight with the combined weight of each vehicle weighed separately. If the weights determined by this method vary by more than 0.2%, the scale shall not be used to determine the gross weight of vehicles while they are coupled until the scales are corrected to properly measure within the 0.2% range.

(4) If a scale cannot be used to weigh vehicles under subsection (2) while they are coupled, the vehicles shall be weighed individually and the weights totaled to obtain the gross weight of the vehicle combination.

(5) This section does not apply to the enforcement of vehicle weight under the Michigan vehicle code, 1949 PA 300, MCL 257.1 to 257.923.

This act is ordered to take immediate effect.

Clerk of the House of Representatives

Secretary of the Senate

Approved

Governor