The most lightweight, compact and environmentally friendly travel scale now available for travelling weight-watchers

Any suitcase savvy traveller is all too well aware of escalating excess baggage charges and the penalties that even weighty hand luggage can now incur, but what of the often hailed solution to the problem - travel scales - and the far from accurate readings some of them can give?

Greg Marshall, founder of The Baggage Scale, became so frustrated at the discrepancy between the travel scales reading taken before leaving home and the dreaded airport check- in counter that he decided to take matters into his own hands and design one himself.

“I’m a Chartered Engineer and frequent air traveller but gradually airport check in became less of worrying about whether I’d forgotten my tickets and passport, and more about fretting if I’d be embarrassingly emptying the contents of my case in front of an audience,” he explains.

“It was then that I started using luggage scales to weigh my case before leaving the house and slowly I realised that this was a minefield in itself – each one I tried, mechanical or digital, gave me a different reading with some of them being pretty expensive and then having flat batteries just when I needed them,” he continues.

The Baggage Scale is the result of Greg’s determination to make a better product and after four years of design and development the pilot released in Australia, is now available to buy in the UK. Addressing recurrent issues he experienced such as often never getting the same reading twice, painful fingers due to uncomfortable and awkward handles, and circular dials impossible to read when lifting to name just a few, it’s a shown to be:

• A totally different concept in travel scale design as unlike all digital scales, the scale drum revolves.
• The most stylish, lightweight, compact and environmentally friendly non digital scale available with ‘no dangly bits’ – all other scales have a swinging metal hook or dangling strap for connecting to luggage.
• Kind to your back and fingers, and weighing just 106 grams, it fits in the palm of your hand with no sharp, metal hooks
• Easy to read with a  magnifying viewer, it gives an instant readout and can weigh luggage up to 32kg/70lbs
• Much more accurate than cheap dial scales and more cost effective than expensive digital scales
• Environmentally friendly with no electronic waste - it doesn’t require batteries or a printed circuit board meaning it’ll never go flat

“With research by Amadeus showing that the total revenue airlines receive from "extras" such as baggage charges etc. is expected to rise by 44 per cent this year, and Ryanair inflating its baggage charges, from £15 to £20 per flight during peak holiday periods, having an accurate luggage scale as part of your travelling toolkit, has never been so essential,” Greg goes on.

“For me though,  when I travel, other luggage scales have always kind of missed the point – who wants to pay £20 upwards for a digital scale that keeps needing replacement batteries to avoid a £10 excess baggage charge? Or, who wants to buy a mechanical one that’s so inaccurate, you get charged anyway?!” he says.

“Designing and creating The Baggage Scale is my way of addressing those issues and hopefully creating something that’ll help travellers avoid the problems that I unfortunately faced time and time again.”