Change of rules delays cargo for two months

There appears to be a price on police escorts in the abnormal load industry, according to Carl Webb of Project Logistics Management. “When an abnormal load requires a police escort, it is now the practice for the police to arrive at the common loading point and ask ‘who’s got the money?’ “Whoever pays gets the escort,” he told FTW. As a case history, Webb cited an abnormal transporter who plain refused to pay bribes. “This company had an incident in Kwa-Zulu Natal which resulted in it taking seven weeks to haul a load 1 000 kilometres to its destination at a power station.” Another incident happened in the Cape where the provincial administration’s abnormal permits office changed the rules overnight. “Three identical vehicles and identical loads were weighed on December 1, got the permits and delivered to the mine on December 7. “Another two identical vehicles and loads were then weighed on the third, but the company was advised that the permit office’s interpretation of THR 11 had changed, and these two vehicles were overweight on two rear axle groups. “After much debate, and eventually begging, abnormal permits were granted and the loads reached the site at the end of January. So the client had to wait two months for his units.”