Licences will also be
checked, writes Anna Cox
THE KWA-ZULU Natal road traffic inspectorate, determined to stamp out overloading on the province's roads, is planning to weigh and test 100 000 heavy vehicles before the end of the year.
The province recently became the first in the country to sign a performance-based contract with the South African National Roads Agency to control overloading.
The new target is way above the previous record high of 56 700 vehicles tested in 1998. An additional 54 traffic officials have been trained and are working on the province's roads
And, said John Schnell, director of the road traffic inspectorate, the overloading project is already ahead of schedule with a record
16 000 trucks being tested in March alone.
The province has started 24-hour testing and weighing at Pinetown, Mkondeni (near Pietermaritzburg), Midway (near Escourt) and at Ladysmith. Two other testing stations have been established on the N11 at Newcastle and at Greytown and these will operate on a 16-hour-a-day basis. Schnell said traffic officials would not only be weighing vehicles but would be checking vehicle licences, drivers, licences, public driving permits, checking for outstanding warrants of arrest and summons, testing drivers for alcohol and drug abuse and doing basic mechanical safety tests especially on braking systems because of the province's dangerously steep passes at Van Reenen, Townhill and Marianhill.
We are determined, through our dedicated enforcement, to decrease overloading to less than 10%. We currently stand at 14%, which is one of the lowest in the country, but we want it to drop even further, he said.
The aim of the benchmark contract, said Schnell was to lengthen the economic life of the road, to save maintenance costs for Government and for the concessionaire, the N3TC Toll Concession Company, as well as to improve the economy of the province.
The N3 corridor from Johannesburg to Durban is one of strategic importance. It carries 60% of imports and exports by road into and out of the rest of Africa, he said.
Other benefits were that the weigh stations would also be used as quick emergency response points and as a refuge for motorists who felt threatened or harassed.
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