Reading the Delivery Ticket: Did You Get the Quantity You Paid For?

Model law, adopted one state at a time

The rules for checking a delivered quantity sit in three NIST handbooks, each in a 2026 edition that supersedes the 2025 edition: Handbook 44 for weighing devices, Handbook 130 for the uniform laws and regulations, and Handbook 133 for testing packaged goods.

The Handbook 130 texts cited below are model law and regulation, and the Method of Sale regulation's background describes its adoption by individual jurisdictions. The Uniform Weights and Measures Law in the same handbook adopts Handbook 44 and the uniform regulations by citation in Sections 4 to 9; its note to Section 4 says that where a state cannot take revisions automatically, its director must adopt each revision. Before you quote a clause below at a supplier, ask your state program which edition it actually enforces.

What a bulk delivery ticket has to list

Section 17 of the Uniform Weights and Measures Law, Sale from Bulk, applies to any bulk sale in which buyer and seller are not both present to witness the measurement. If you were not standing at the scale when your stone was weighed, a ticket showing the items in this section's table, where they apply, should come with it.

Section 1.2 says weight, used of a commodity, means net weight, and Section 1.8 excludes containers and conveyances from net weight. The figure the price rests on should therefore be the material alone. Section 14 then prohibits selling less than the quantity represented, so a ticket that overstates the load is more than a paperwork slip.

The unit the quantity may be stated in

Two sections of the 2026 Method of Sale regulation cover what a landscape buyer orders by the load, and their permitted units do not match. Section 2.29(a) covers top soil, fill dirt, aggregate or chipped rock, sand including concrete and mortar sand, decomposed granite, landscape type rock and cinders when sold in bulk, and requires them to be sold by the cubic meter, the cubic yard or by weight. Section 2.18.2 requires mulch to be sold by volume: cubic meter or liter, or cubic yard or cubic foot.

So for a bulk load a cubic-foot quantity is permitted for mulch but is not among the units 2.29(a) names, and weight is permitted for bulk soil and stone but not for mulch. To check a ticket's cubic yards or tons against the job, run your dimensions through the topsoil calculator or the gravel calculator.

Scale accuracy and typed-in weights

In Handbook 44's scales code, Section 2.20, Table 7a gives Class III L as the typical class for vehicle scales and notes that a higher class may be used. For Class III L, crane and non-grain hopper scales aside, Table 3 requires a verification scale interval, e, of at least 5 lb and between 2,000 and 10,000 intervals. Table 6 states tolerances in e, not pounds; the table in this section sets out the Class III L steps. Maintenance tolerances apply to equipment in actual use. Acceptance tolerances, half as large, apply to equipment new to commercial use and to equipment tested within 30 days of corrective service after a rejection or of a major overhaul.

UR.3.8 bars a vehicle scale from weighing net loads under 50 scale divisions, with a lower floor for scrap and refuse.

The key rule is S.1.12. For a device used in direct sale, which Handbook 44 defines as a sale where both parties are present while the quantity is determined, a hand-entered gross or net weight may be accepted only while the scale's own indication is at zero. The next sentence, which carries no direct-sale qualifier of its own, requires a recorded manual entry to be marked Manual Weight, Manual Wt or MAN WT, or, where one document carries several, by a symbol whose definition the device prints automatically on the same page. S.1.12 is nonretroactive from 1 January 1993 (2005 for net indications), so it does not reach a scale already in commercial service in the state on that date. UR.3.10 allows manual entries only for a short list of uses; the use it names for vehicle scale systems is issuing a ticket to correct an erroneous one. A typed figure on a routine ticket is a question for the seller.

Bagged soil and mulch: how short measure is tested

Handbook 133 Section 3.10 covers mulch and soils labeled by volume, soil meaning growing media, soil amendments and soil replacements. The test measure in Table 3-4 is built so its actual volume exceeds its nominal capacity, which lets overfill be measured as well as shortfall.

The inspector draws a random sample from a defined inspection lot under a Category A plan. Each bag is rolled four to eight full turns without being lifted or dropped, emptied into the measure in one continuous pour and leveled by hand, with no shaking, rocking or tamping. The package error is the measured volume minus the labeled volume.

Two tests then apply. The maximum allowable variation is 5 percent of the declared volume, and one bag in every 12 in the sample may fall short by more than that. The sample must also meet the Category A average requirement: a negative average error fails only if it is larger than a sample error limit computed from the sample's standard deviation. A bag short by less than 5 percent does not by itself fail a lot, and neither does an average shortfall inside that limit.

Where a complaint goes

The model law sets up a state weights and measures division in Section 10, and Section 13 gives county and city officials the Act's powers locally, except those reserved to the state, so the office you need may be local. In Texas, the Department of Agriculture takes complaints about inaccurate scales, packages and misrepresented prices by phone or in writing, and asks for the name and address of the place where the alleged violation occurred.

Keep the ticket. Ready-mixed concrete tickets are a separate subject; for how much concrete to order, use the concrete calculator, and the other estimators are on the calculators index.

Sources

• NIST Handbook 130-2026, Uniform Laws and Regulations in the Areas of Legal Metrology and Fuel Quality, as adopted by the 110th National Council on Weights and Measures, December 2025 (doi.org/10.6028/NIST.HB.130-2026; supersedes HB 130-2025) - Part III.A Uniform Weights and Measures Law: Section 1.2 Weight, 1.8 Net Weight, Sections 4-9 and the Section 4 Note (adoption by citation), Section 10 State Weights and Measures Division, Section 13 Powers and Duties of Local Officials, Section 14 Misrepresentation of Quantity, Section 17 Sale from Bulk (amended 1983 and 1991)
• NIST Handbook 130-2026, Part IV.B Uniform Regulation for the Method of Sale of Commodities - Section 1 Background; Section 2.18 Mulch (2.18.2 Quantity, added 1983, amended 1987); Section 2.29 Sand, Rock, Gravel, Stone, Paving Stone, and Similar Materials, when Sold in Bulk (added 2000)
• NIST Handbook 44-2026, Specifications, Tolerances, and Other Technical Requirements for Weighing and Measuring Devices, as adopted by the 110th National Council on Weights and Measures, January 2026 (doi.org/10.6028/NIST.HB.44-2026; supersedes HB 44-2025) - General Code G-A.6 Nonretroactive Requirements, G-T.1 Acceptance Tolerances and G-T.2 Maintenance Tolerances; Appendix D definition of direct sale
• NIST Handbook 44-2026, Section 2.20 Scales - Table 3 Parameters for Accuracy Classes and its footnote 2; Table 6 Maintenance Tolerances (amended 2024); T.N.3.1 and T.N.3.2; Table 7a Typical Class or Type of Device for Weighing Applications, with its note; S.1.12 Manual Weight Entries (added 1992, amended 2004); UR.3.8 Minimum Load on a Vehicle Scale (amended 1988, 1992 and 2006); UR.3.10 Use of Manual Weight Entries (added 1992, amended 2000 and 2004)
• NIST Handbook 133-2026, Checking the Net Contents of Packaged Goods, as adopted by the 110th National Council on Weights and Measures, December 2025 (doi.org/10.6028/NIST.HB.133-2026; supersedes HB 133-2025) - Section 3.10 Mulch and Soils Labeled by Volume: 3.10.1 and Table 3-4 (amended 2010 and 2017), 3.10.2 Test Procedure (amended 2017), 3.10.3 Evaluation of Results and its note; Section 2.3.7.1 MAV Requirement and 2.3.7.2 Average Requirement (amended 2018 and 2022)
• Texas Department of Agriculture, Filing a Weights and Measures Complaint (Weights and Measures Complaint Process page), texasagriculture.gov - consulted 26 September 2026; the page shows a 2026 copyright and no revision date

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