FleetWatch Online - 16-Graceless

Pic Courtesy Gary Ronald

Night moves – overload control infrastructures are becoming increasingly adept at catching fly-bynight operators who overload.

There are two major battles raging on our roadways right now: the fight against road accidents that kill an average of 12 000 people every year, and the war on overloaded trucks, which not only contribute to the death toll, but distort the road transport economy and cost the taxpayer hundreds of millions of rands annually in road repair and maintenance bills. Much has been done by government, law enforcement and road management agencies in recent years to clamp down on overloaders, from passing load control legislation, to the building of weighbridges on major routes, to equipping mobile 'weigh-in-motion' screening units, to training traffic officers and offering advice and weighing services to transport operators. The latest chapter in the overload control saga centers around the resolution by the office of the Director of Public Prosecution for a reduction of the 5% 'grace/tolerance' on gross vehicle/combination mass to 2%. Along with other new initiatives, the new 2% 'grace' represents an enhanced capability on the part of overload controllers to stem the tide of road wreckers, writes Paul Collings.

According to Skhumbuzo Macozoma, Chief Director, Integrated Infrastructure Network Development, Department of Transport (DoT), "Referring to recent studies done by the CSIR, road damage caused by heavy vehicle overloading has been estimated to cost in the range of R600-R800 million per annum in South Africa. In addition, the transport costs incurred by road users as a result of bad roads are estimated to be in billions per annum. Accelerated road damage has a ripple effect that negatively impacts on the economy."

Macozoma's view is shared by Miles le Roux, Traffic Engineer, N3TC: "Trucks conveying freight on the N3 represent 30% of the total vehicles on this road. Persistent overloading by 12% of the hauliers is causing severe damage to the road pavement, resulting in the need to affect repairs earlier than scheduled and consequently substantially higher costs to maintain the road network"

Overloaders' M.O.
The practice of overloading a commercial vehicle is driven by the need to maximise payload and profit. Law abiding transporters are being undercut by overloaders and the sustainability and equity of the transport industry is consequently threatened by not only vehicle owners who overload, but by consignors as well. Macozoma describes the methods overloaders employ in order to avoid weighbridge prosecutions denting their bottom line: "Some heavy vehicle operators have become experts in this practice over time. They actually budget for admission of guilt fines in the event that overloaded trucks are caught. They use technology like cell phones to monitor overload control operations and warn truckers of overloading operations. Escape routes are plotted to inform the selection of routes for cargo transport and it is not uncommon that corrupt measures are used to avoid charging and prosecution. Some operators use backup vehicles to offload excess loads when caught only to reload upon release to continue with the journey."

Law enforcement authorities have been stretched in terms of resources in an attempt to curb this indiscriminate practice of heavy vehicle overloading, he says, adding that "due to current challenges such as a shortage of traffic officers, low salary levels of traffic officers, lack of weighbridge infrastructure and poor coordination of processes the success levels have until recently not been at desired levels."

Improved compliance
Echoing these sentiments is John Schnell, Chief Traffic Officer, KZN Road Traffic Inspectorate: "The coming into being of the Road Traffic Act 29 of 1989 and subsequently the launch of Act 93 of 1996 along with the stop start implementation of the National Land Transport Transition Act (NLTTA) and the delays in the coming into operation of the Road Traffic Management Corporation Act (RTMC) has, over the past ten years or so, generally left road traffic enforcement in a dysfunctional mess. It has only been in the past six months or so that some semblance of re-energizing and re-centralizing has occurred with regards to legislation and policy under the RTMC."

Despite bureaucratic bog downs, lack of training and poor remuneration hampering law enforcers, there has been a significant shift in overloading trends over the past 20 years that suggests a broad-based compliance with load mass restrictions on the part of operators, explains Schnell. "It is significant to note that the distribution of overloading in KZN province has continued to change in a positive direction. Since 1996, there has been a sharp increase in the percentage of overloaded vehicles that are marginally overloaded (0 to 2 tons) and a general decrease in the percentage of overloaded vehicles that are moderately or severely overloaded (more than 3 tons). Prior to 1990, less than 10% of the overloaded vehicles fell within the 5% tolerance, whereas during 2005, 76% of the overloaded vehicles were less than 5% overloaded."

The Heidelberg Traffic Control Centre is developing plans to improve its operational abilities to include roving teams with mobile weighing equipment to cover alternative routes within a reasonable radius of the facility.

With the help of technology and skilled weighbridge operators, compliance by transporters is improving, averting a complete breakdown of the road network.

Enhanced control
The percentage of overloaded vehicles that are loaded to within the 5% tolerance limits has stabilized to between 70 and 80% during the past 5 years, says Schnell. "This trend indicates that the 5% tolerance is being utilized by many operators to maximize vehicle payloads."

With the transport industry being as price sensitive as it is, the 5% 'grace' is obviously being regarded by many operators as part of the 'legal' payload. Lowering the mass limit on GVM is a means to bring this 'misconception' under check and thereby also reduce the occurrence of axle overloading.

The National Overload Control Strategy (NOCS) forms part of the DoT's Freight Logistics Strategy and according to Macozoma, "The DoT, in partnership with road traffic authorities, completed the National Overload Control Strategy in March 2004. The NOCS basis for development was threefold: i.e. to protect road infrastructure, improve safety on the roads and to ensure seamless movement of cargo. This strategy reinforces other key strategies within the DoT including the Road to Safety Strategy, the Strategic Framework for Roads and the Freight Logistics Strategy."

The NOCS has eleven main focus areas, where escalations in infrastructure and legislation will assist in the enhanced control of overloading, explains Macozoma: "Improvement of the weighbridge infrastructure is the first. This involves the development and upgrading of overload control infrastructure in strategic locations across the South African road network. Secondly, the Strategy will drive the 'extension of liability' for overloading, which involves the inclusion of provisions in the National Road Traffic Act (NRTA) to include the cargo consignors and consignees in prosecutions for heavy vehicle overloading. Thirdly, is the revision of the of the 5% tolerance to the current 2% of the Gross Vehicle Mass (GVM)/Gross Combination Mass (GCM).

"The NOCS will implement a 'definition of habitual overloaders' for inclusion in the NRTA. The fifth area concerns the engagement of the short-term insurance industry to brand overloaders as high risk, in order to introduce steep insurance premiums in an effort to discourage overloading. The sixth area is the promotion of Public Private Partnerships to increase the role of the private sector in the provision of overload control infrastructure, the supply of hi tech equipment for overload control and in overload control operations. Number seven is the strengthening of cooperation with the Department of Justice in order to elevate the profile of overloading offences in courts and to ensure stiff penalties for guilty offenders. Promotion of self-regulation in the heavy vehicle industry is area eight, an initiative which is intended to foster a partnership with industry to ensure proper load management, vehicle roadworthiness and driver fitness.

"The ninth area involves the training of officers and the improvement of law enforcement operations to execute overload control effectively. This includes the improvement of training material at traffic colleges as well as the upgrading of operational manuals for overload control. Area ten is the introduction of portable weighing equipment ensuring dedicated research to continuously improve this technology in order to offer desired accuracies for not only heavy vehicle screening but for prosecution purposes as well. Finally, area eleven will focus on the introduction of fees and penalties which will seek to strike a balance between the amount of damage that heavy vehicles inflict on the road network and the fines imposed on overloading culprits. A new administrative fee will be introduced over and above traffic fines for damage caused on the roads."

Goodbye gross – This graph illustrates how transporters and consignors have moved away from flagrant overloading beyond the 5% tolerance over the last ten years, to eek out extra payload within the tolerance limit, with safer 1-2 ton over stipulated GVM loads.

Exponential upscale - The table above shows how the development of overload control strategies and infrastructures across the provinces has boosted the number of vehicles weighed since 1998, consequently thwarting the destruction of our road network and curtailing the threat to human life, the environment and the economy posed by overloaded trucks.

A public enemy
Macozoma's message is clear: the Law is getting its overload control arsenal in order and will increasingly become better equipped to not only catch offenders, but prosecute and extract equitable compensation for road damage.

Having a quality road network is crucial if South Africa wants to progress as a global economic player. Overloaded trucks are a serious obstacle to our achieving this goal. It's up to all of us to support the personnel and strategies fighting on the overloading front lines.