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The big challenge
for operators when it comes to legal loads is to get the load distribution right at the point of loading. This cannot be done without the cooperation of consignors who, as it stands, are creaming the industry at the very expense of the industry writes
Patrick O'Leary.
Take everything else out of the discussion bar load distribution and that is where you begin to zero in on the main challenge facing this industry. It is also where you begin to zero in on the main reasons for the negative image this industry 'enjoys' when it comes to operating responsibly and in the interests of our country as a whole.
There have been a number of studies done on the industry relating to overloading statistics but the most comprehensive is the annual KZN Overloading Control Report. Read this report and on the surface it looks like this industry doesn't care about responsible operations. However, dig under the surface - as
FleetWatch has done by speaking to and soliciting comment from some of the companies mentioned in the report - and a different picture begins to emerge.
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Top: The fleet of Nissan Diesel UD440s arrives at the loading site. They have already been over the weighbridge on the way in. The front end loader (above), owned and operated by Lukas Potgieter, scoops up crome ore and dumps it into the side-tippers (right). The question is: How much of this heavy material do you load how do you distribute it? The answer lies in the pics below.
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Fitted to the front-end loader is an on-board weighing device called a Loadrite which weighs each scoop and tells the operator how much he has loaded and when he's reached the legal 28 tons (in this case). This device makes life so easy and gets the load right. Distribution may be incorrect at this stage but gross is fine. |
The picture is one which shows that the vast majority of transport operators are trying to get their loads right, and they certainly do when it comes to 'gross'. Their problem, however, lies in correct load distribution - an area where many fall foul of the law via overloads incurred on an axle or axle grouping. So why not get this right you may ask? If it was in their hands, many would but it is clear that there are factors which dictate heavily against transporters taking control of this.
Let's look at logic. It stands to reason - or at least it does in my mind - that operators who are not deliberately overloading on gross would be foolhardy to deliberately get the load distribution wrong if all they are going to get out of it is a costly fine? There's no extra profit as that only comes from overloading on gross.
And this is where transporters have been left on their own. So many are in the hands of the consignors when it comes to loading legally at the point of loading - and this particularly so with bulk loads. In the highly unlikely event that there is a weigh-bridge on site, it usually only measures gross rather than individual axle loads. And guess what - many consignors don't give two hoots about the ramifications to the transporter of their neglect, ignorance and non-caring attitudes.
In the past, it has been hard to find operators willing to speak out against this - simply because they were afraid of upsetting and/or losing their customers. However, we get the distinct feeling that this is changing with more and more companies getting fed up with carrying the can for what is essentially not their fault.
One of these is Fernando Lavos, managing director of Amalgamated Bulk who, without reservation, pleads with the authorities through
FleetWatch to bring the consignor into the net of blame. His drivers have no control over the loads put onto their rigs at the point of loading and if they complain, they can be discriminated against by the loader with such actions as being left to wait or being pushed to the back of the queue, having more overload put on and other despicable actions. It's the pits and Lavos is not the only one who is now fed up. There are many others. (See page 48 for some responses).
The real tragedy is that it is not only the operator's reputation which suffers. The real victim is the driver who gets arrested on the spot pending his appearance in court.
FleetWatch has, in the past, highlighted this aspect of the law as being an 'ass' and we stick to that.
On these pages, we show pictorially what we regard as the ideal situation of 'partnership' between consignor and transporter. It is between Lukas Potgieter Vervoer and its customer, Samancor's Tubatse mine at Tweefontein where both parties are working together to ensure that the trucks going out on the road are legally loaded - from both a gross and distribution point of view. From what I'm told by other bulk hauliers, this is the exception not the norm.
The time has come for the Minister of Transport to act on a letter sent by
FleetWatch to his predecessor, the late Minister Dullah Omar, back in October 2002 asking that the consignor be brought into the net. At the time, we received a reply from Minister Omar stating that our call was a good one and that something would be put in place.
According to legal 'boffin' Alta Swanepoel, a bill was put together in 2003 and was passed to a parliamentary committee who assesses it and sent it back to the draft board who then resent it back to parliament where it is now waiting. "The bill was ignored during 2004 but now a lobbying committee is pushing to get it gazetted after it fell off the roster in parliament," she tells
FleetWatch.
Minister Radebe, if you are really serious about preventing further damage to our roads and acting in the interests of your portfolio, then get that Bill passed. Bring the consignor into the net and it will reduce axle overloading infringements drastically - not totally, as loads still shift on the roads, but drastically, yes. Once that's done, then go out there and hit gross overloaders with everything you've got. You will be totally justified in doing so.
