The invention of the CAT Scale gave drivers a better way to weigh trucks and trailers in the 1970s. You see them at truck stops across North America. Blazoned with a stylish or stylized cat face, those bright yellow signs signal a chance to pre-weigh a tractor-trailer and avoid unpleasant surprises at the weigh station.
But if you’ve ever wondered who invented the CAT Scale, the idea came from Bill Moon, founder of the Iowa 80 truck stop. Weighing a truck was time-consuming and often frustrating in the 1970s, as trucks had to weigh on single-platform scales. And there are three different axle groups to be weighed, explained Steve Joke, Vice President of Development for Cat Scale.
So a driver would pull up to the scale with a pocketful of quarters, plunk them in, and weigh the first axle, then he’d have to move his truck and repeat the process twice. After that, you’d have to add those weights to ensure you were legal. Bill Moon watched drivers as they wasted precious time on the task at Iowa ad and thought there had to be a better way to weigh a truck.
So Bill and his team at Iowa 80 put their heads together and set out to simplify the process. The result was a combination of three scales, one for each axle group, that could be used together. The separate weight recorded by each device was then tallied to determine a truck’s gross weight.
The device is undoubtedly one of the most industry-changing inventions on record. Once its accuracy was proven, one question was: What would it be called?
After some debate and 10,000 miles of road time, certified weight was the objective, and the concept of automatic calculations was rare and futuristic in those days. And, of course, that is, the device was designed to weigh trucks. So, the device was dubbed the certified automatic truck scale.
However, the moniker doesn’t easily roll off the tongue, and it was eventually shortened to the familiar acronym we know today: the CAT Scale. The first CAT Scale was installed in South Holland, Illinois, in 1977, introducing the trucking industry to a revolutionary way to weigh trucks.
