Unscrupulous truckers are sneaking through vastly overweight loads
Alan Peat
IT'S TIME the Durban weighbridge was open 24-hours-a-day to catch the clever truckers who sneak vastly overweight loads in and out of the terminal in the small hours, according to the SA Association of Freight Forwarders (SAAFF) in Durban.
It's now only running for about five-to-six hours a day, according to Paul Rayner, who heads up the association's harbour carriers division.
And that's not enough, he added, allowing illegal transporters free rein after hours and over weekends.
The association has proof that this is happening on a "widespread scale", Rayner told FTW.
The statistical proof, he added, lies in the weighbridge's catch record. When it first opened in February 2000 it was nabbing 46% of heavy vehicles for overloading.
"Horrifying," said Rayner. Two years later this is down to the current level of 5% - with no big swing in business to the reputables who have spent millions on appropriate equipment.
The obvious answer is that the illegals are slipping through the rather large gap when the weighbridge is shut down, a result of "inadequate manpower numbers", according to the Metro Police who man it.
"The net result," Rayner told FTW, "is that millions have been spent erecting it, and tens of thousands a month running it, but with very little being generated in the way of fines.
"It defeats the whole object."
Rather run it 24-hours-a-day for five days a week, with two or three random eight-hour shifts over the weekend, is the proposal.
From a cost benefit point of view, said Rayner, the extra fines against the "unscrupulous" and the savings in road damage, would cover the extra cost of manpower and some.
"It's an expensive asset which should be earning the city some money, but could very easily turn into a white elephant," he added.
"If it's not manned round the clock, the city might as well close down entirely for all the good it is doing."
The harbour carriers have addressed their comments to the City Hall.
