Private sector weighs in on container overload issue

A cure is being urgently sought
for the rapidly escalating
problem of vehicle overloading
in the port city of Durban
where overloaded containers
are being singled out as being
the major culprits – but an
answer could be on the way.
According to information
released to FTW by the
Southern African Freight
Transport Institute, the latest
overloading report from the
KwaZulu Natal Road Traffic
Inspectorate showed the top 10
overloads in the province were
containers.
Another worrying figure
was that, of the tankers
stopped and checked, 35.5%
were indeed well over the
limit. Also, the large numbers
of interlink bulk tippers
carrying minerals, grain and
feeds added to the proportions
of overloaded vehicles.
“It is a disastrous situation
that SA’s two main container
ports, Cape Town and
Durban, now have no effective
vehicle-weighing capacity in
the immediate port precinct,”
the institute told FTW.
“The metropolitan traffic
authority in Durban has
abandoned the weighbridge
built to control overloading of
vehicles around the port. This
leaves the area wide open
to the cowboys and crooks
among the 5 000 vehicles per
day that use Bayhead Road
to access the Pier 2 Durban
container terminal (DCT),
Pier 1 and the Island View
chemicals storage and the
Bluff bulk terminals.”
It was a problem that was
being brought under control
in the first half of the decade.
Between 2000 and 2005, the
Bayhead weighbridge, run by
a private company, reduced
the level of overloading on
vehicles stopped for checking
from 38% to 7% over about
two years. This was before
it was taken over by Durban
Metro police in 2005. Since
then, the deteriorating
operational efficiency,
allegations of connivance and
cost resulted in closure and
redeployment of staff.
This left the road transport,
shipping and forwarding
industries wide open to
overloading abuse.
But hot talks have been
taking place in Durban
between a committee of
various private sector parties,
the municipality and the
port authorities about the
possible resuscitation of the
weighbridge.
“I’m very optimistic at
the moment,” said Andrew
Layman, CEO of the Durban
Chamber of Commerce, and
chairman of the committee
designed to motivate the
revival of the facility. “There
has been very positive input from all the stakeholders.”
It has so far been accepted
that it will be a responsibility
of the municipality
“They may put it out to
tender,” said Layman, “but
that is by no means certain.
But I would like to expect
that it will be at least a public/
private partnership (PPP).”
The latest state of play
is that the municipality is
currently due to discuss the
renegotiation of the lease for
the weighbridge facility with
the port authority, in the form
of Transnet Properties.
Also coming out of the
thinking behind the new
plans, Layman added, is that
the weighbridge facility will
probably include the latest
technology, with electronic
sensor pads to gauge whether
a vehicle is overloaded.
This would speed up the
facility’s vehicle testing rate,
and increase the number that
could be checked each day.
It’s all part of a global effort
to control the overloading
problem, which puts road
vehicle, port container
handling equipment and ship
stability at high risk – with all
the possibly fatal consequences
of such a situation.