Anna Cox
HEAVY VEHICLE overloading is costing South Africa R650 million a year, according to a comprehensive report compiled by Ray Sowman of TMT Projects.
But it's a conservative figure, he says, because overloaders usually use secondary roads which offer minimum chance of detection, and the damage to these roads has not been included in road damage cost calculation.
The report further reveals that the accrued backlog for the upgrading, maintenance and repair of the country's roads is estimated at around R37 billion.
Improved profit contributions is the main reason for the offence.
A haulier operating a fleet of 10 rigs can increase annual profit contribution by R1,2 million by overloading each rig by only five tons per trip - and a five ton GCM overload on a legal payload of 36 tons for a 56 ton maximum size interlink rig, is only an 8.9% overload. Much higher percentage overloads are regularly recorded, he said.
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