What is a tare weight?

A tare weight is simply a vehicle's unladen weight and is commonly displayed on the side of railway wagons.

Tare weight is an important consideration for railway operators because the simplest way to calculate the gross weight of a loaded wagon is to add the cargo's weight together with that of the wagon transporting it. This of course works the opposite way around and deducting the tare weight from the gross weight will result in the cargo's weight.

Knowing these weights are necessary not only for operational purposes such as planning motive power requirements and route availability etc but also for working out taxes and other financial information relevant to freight operations.