Kerb Weight

Kerb weight is the weight of the vehicle as it stands ready for the road: chassis, body, a full tank of fuel, coolant, lubricants and usually the driver, but no cargo. It is the baseline from which payload is calculated.

It differs from tare weight, which in Indian transport practice usually means the weighbridge reading of the empty vehicle on the day — including whatever fuel, tools, spare wheel and dunnage happen to be aboard. Kerb weight is a specification; tare weight is a measurement, and the two rarely match exactly.

Body fabrication is what most often invalidates the assumed figure. A vehicle re-bodied with a heavier steel container or fitted with a hydraulic tail-lift gains kerb weight and loses exactly that much payload, and unless the fleet re-weighs after modification it will keep dispatching to a capacity it no longer has.