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.