Kevin Martin’s understanding that the professional companies as a whole abused the 5% allowance by having sophisticated load measurement systems and therefore loading the extra 2.8 tons is a generalisation which is not completely correct. There may be some companies that are able to do this, but the RFA believes that this is not the norm. There are many factors which influence the payload and therefore the load of the vehicle combination. These include: variation in the load density, variation in the loading systems, influence of the weather on some bulk loads, as well as unprofessional practices by the consignor and consignee. In addition to this, as proved by the road freight industry in their weighbridge survey some years ago, the accuracy of the weighbridges in the country can be questioned. So, while Kevin Martin certainly has some justification for what he says, the RFA believes that his generalisation is flawed. In conclusion, we would like to emphasise that the RFA has declared to its members that they should load to 56 tons and not add in the allowance.
