With scientific proof that overloaded trucks destroy road pavements exponentially quicker than legally loaded vehicles at great cost to the tax payer, as well as the safety hazards associated with degraded road surfaces, the war on overloading has made great strides since the mid 1990s when less than 60 000 trucks were weighed at municipal weighbridges. Today, over a million rigs pass over the some 100 weighbridges nationwide, an illustration of how not only the control/compliance mindset has changed but also how law enforcement infrastructures have ramped up capacity to battle head-on the hazards of overloaded vehicles. 

With the National Department of Transport (NDoT) currently rolling out its National Overload Control Strategy (NOCS), limiting the overload ‘tolerance’ to 2% (from 5%) in June 2006, coupled with multimillion-rand improvements to weighbridges, it is clear that the gloves are off as far as roaddamaging trucks are concerned. 

This Special Report will cover a number of areas with regards to overloading trends, overloading legislation and enforcement, as well as ways to load optimally and legally…writes Paul Collings.