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The sands of time are shifting and government's patience for overloading has run out. A host of new control mechanisms will come into play in the next year to drastically reduce the number of overloaded trucks on our roads. |
There is a simple rule to making a truck transport operation profitable - optimize payload and minimize running costs. On the face of it, this is an easy equation to grasp, but ask any professional transporter how reality wrestles with this principal and they will invariably cast a heavy-lidded and non-plussed stare in your direction. The point being, a lorry moving at 80kph carrying 30+ tons of freight is a risky entity and a whole lot can go wrong. Never mind accidents, cargo spills and hijackings, ill-fated drivers can be jailed, their trucks impounded, because one or more of their vehicle's axles is beyond the 'legal mass limit'. When the 'law' steps in and 'arrests' an overloaded truck, big money is lost, and it's not going to get any easier for transporters. The fact is, government is dead serious about protecting our national road infrastructure, building its capacity to stop in their tracks both overloaded trucks and the people who allow them to run, writes
Paul Collings.
Some transporters will argue that loading a truck is not an exact science, that loading optimally in such a way that no axle groups are overloaded is a hit or miss affair, especially when the cargo is liquid or when distribution cycles require part-loads be moved at separate intervals on the same trip. Invariably, it is these people who top our country's national overloading 'blacklist'. This is not to say they intend to overload. It's just that shifting loads and 'bridge formulas' are 'difficult to pin down'.
It has been scientifically proven that while a truck's gross vehicle mass (GVM) may be within the legal limit, its individual axles may be overloaded and it is these that cause the bulk of damage to road pavements, to the detriment of tax payers and road users in general. From an operator's perspective, overloading not only kills the very surface the trucks run on, it eats away at the profitability of the industry itself.
Government gets heavy
With damage to our national road network caused by overloaded trucks estimated to cost the economy between R600 to R800 million per annum, it's no surprise when the powers that be step in and implement strategies to significantly reduce the number of overloaded trucks operating on SA's roads. State and toll concessionaire-run weigh bridges are now very much part of our local trucking landscape and construed by most operators as a 'necessary evil'. They also form the technological backbone of the Department of Transport's (DoT) National Overloading Control Strategy (NOCS), the aim of which is to upgrade weighbridge stations to full vehicle test centres (VTCs) to not only put a stop to overloading, but to improve road safety by impounding unroadworthy vehicles, apprehending unfit drivers and punishing non-compliant operators with hefty fines and other onerous financial mechanisms.
Government's intentions in this regard were laid bare at the launch of the new Donkerhoek Weighbridge and Traffic Control Centre, situated on the N4 east of Pretoria in June this year. Outlining the NOCS and the role the new facility will play in bringing operators in to line was Minister of Transport, Jeff Radebe, who said: "Our current reality as government is that we are confronted with various forms of overloading such as repeat overloading by the same operators and severe overloading up to and beyond 100%. So far we have 104 weighbridges throughout the country but heavy vehicle operators have become experts in the overloading practice. Some are budgeting for admission of guilt fines in the event of being caught. They are also studying escape routes to inform the selection of routes for cargo transport and in some instances they use backup vehicles to offload when caught and reload upon release."
The minister explained that a budget of R20 million has been allocated to the NOCS and the upgrading of weighbridge facilities across the country, including both technological and skills enhancements. He also said that via the National Road Traffic Act, the DoT is "investigating ways of extending the liability for overloading beyond operators to ensure that cargo consignors and consignees take ownership and face the full might of the law."
Inroads are also being made within the insurance industry, he said, "to brand overloaders as high risk and for them to carry steep insurance premiums in an effort to discourage overloading. Both the departments of Transport and Justice are also upgrading the guidelines for public prosecution in order to elevate the profile of overloading offences and to ensure stiff penalties for offenders."
Serious net work
Catching overloaded vehicles has obviously become a primary issue for the DoT. The Donkerhoek facility illustrates this quite clearly with its three satellite stations equipped with weigh-in-motion (WIMs) screening devices alerting traffic officials of any overloading. Should a vehicle exceed the legal mass limit over these WIMs, they are stopped, tagged with a magnetized satellite tracking device and directed to the static weighbridge at Donkerhoek, monitored on screen all the while...
Should the vehicle fail the weighbridge test, it then undergoes a full roadworthy pit inspection, including brakes, suspension, steering and emissions tests, as well as driver eye, drug and alcohol tests. Failing these tests results in the vehicle's (and driver's) 'seizure' in the holding lot of the facility.
Hi-tech careers - Creating jobs and upskilling personnel is part of the strategy to control overloading. |
Minister Radebe looks on from inside the control booth as the 'tagged' truck gets weighed. |
The latest wireless technology is used to scan vehicle licence discs and transmit data from pit to server. |
The NOCS plans to screen as many vehicles as possible, irrespective of load type. |
Not only about money
While government and its roads agency SANRAL may cite the fiscal burden overloading places on tax payers as the primary driver behind the NOCS, they also emphasise how overloaded trucks jeopardise road safety. Deteriorating road surfaces, pot holes and 'middel-mannetjies' on tarred surfaces make driving any vehicle a 'dodgy' business, especially at night. What's more, overloading is an unfair business practice which distorts transport rates and generally destabilises the truck transport economy, upon which the national economy is so dependant.
With all these factors in mind, the minister added that "a new administrative fee will be introduced in the near future over and above traffic fines for damage caused on the roads. The intention is to strike a balance between the amount of damage that heavy vehicles inflict on the road network and the fines imposed on overloading culprits."
Justice can be done
The Donkerhoek Weighbridge is managed by toll concessionaire, Trans African Concessions (TRAC), which has had great success in reducing overloading in Mpumalanga, where overloading has been reduced from 33% to 1%. Other concessionaires (N3TC, Bakwena) will follow suit to curb overloading on their roadways, as will state-run weighbridges, employing similar techniques and technologies, including the use of portable weigh bridges to screen vehicles on alternative routes. But, says Hannes van Wyk, services manager at TRAC, "building more weighbridges and trying to cover all alternative routes with satellite stations is not realistic and will be costly. The strategy should focus on the source of overloading through consignor-consignee legislation, self-regulation programmes and heavier fines."
The partnership with the Department of Justice should also be improved says van Wyk. "We still find that many court cases are withdrawn or fines for overloading are reduced by prosecutors and the court. In this regard the state is demoralising its own traffic officers who work hard at these load control facilities to bring overloaders to book. Commercial weighbridges can be erected in industrial areas where consignors can test gross vehicle mass as well as distribution on axles before dispatching their trucks," he concludes.
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SANRAL's ceo, Nazir Ali and Transport Minister, Jeff Radebe unveil the Donkerhoek TCC plaque. |
More carrot, more stick
And that must be the answer then, a multi-pronged approach to eradicate overloading: incentivise operators to self-regulate, to load legally, ferrying cargo for mutually responsible consignors and consignees, safely and profitably. And for those who don't, penalties that really sting.
The following pages in this report investigate ways to put the loading control in your hands. Read on...
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