Contentious CT axle limit quietly put on hold

The contentious 12-tonne axle limit in the Western Cape – a “completely impractical ruling”, according to abnormal truckers – has been quietly put on hold, according to Gavin Kelly, technical and operations manager of the Road Freight Association (RFA). “We were not informed of this repeal by the Western Cape provincial traffic authority, who had arbitrarily applied the ruling,” he told FTW. “We only discovered it about three weeks ago from members who were running abnormal loads through the Cape.” This decision by a member of the province’s transport department was impractical, and a ruling that was putting most of the trailers and trucks in the abnormal loads industry off the roads in the Cape, according to Carl Webb, MD of abnormal load specialists, Project Logistics Management, and member of the RFA’s abnormal loads committee. He pointed out that the bulk of the heavyweight vehicles were built to carry anything from 20 to 32t per axle, and the maximum load on three non-steering axle rigs is currently 24t in the TRH 11 abnormal loads guidelines. Court action was on the cards as the abnormal load trucking industry prepared to fight this “impossible” axle limit. The latest on this front, Kelly added, is that the court action has been delayed, but the RFA is still presenting its case to the minister of transport – and is also still proceeding with its research for a technical report to accompany this presentation.