THE LACK of credible overloading statistics is a major obstacle to developing control strategies.
Says Sowman: The most comprehensive statistics on overloading were produced by the CSIR.
The latest figures for all provinces available were for 1998, but these are unofficial, national statistics which are not funded by the national department of transport. They are paid for on a weighbridge basis
by each province. If they
do not want to pay, there
is no national requirement to do so.
Without proper accurate statistics, it is impossible to develop proper overloading control strategies.
Sowman believes the transport department needs to play its role as facilitator and needs to provide funding for a user-friendly, comprehensive statistics system for overloading control for the country.
The estimated operational cost for such a national system, based on 55 platform weighbridges, should be about R300 000, which is a small amount, when seen in the context of R650 million in road damage, said Sowman.
All is not bad news, however, he added.
During the past six years there has been substantial improvement in overloading control.
Overloading has become high profile and a reasonable number of weighbridges have been upgraded and built and a large number of traffic officers trained.
While it may be impossible for the country to find the money needed to fund the expenditure backlog, it is quite possible to speed up the implementation of efficient overloading control, he said.
Copyright Now Media (Pty) Ltd
No article may be reproduced without the written permission of the editor
To respond to this article send your email to joyo@nowmedia.co.za
