RFA keeps overloading fight alive

Lack of consultation raises concern JOY ORLEK THE ROAD Freight Association has voiced strong objection to the lack of consultation by government in reducing the overloading tolerances gazetted in May and has vowed to continue its fight. This follows an initial approach to the National Overload Control Technical Committee (NOCTC) to protest the June 15 introduction of a new ruling that effectively reduced the permissible overloading tolerance from 5% to 2% over the legal limit for the gross vehicle mass of the truck. “We are not advocating that our members should overload,” said acting RFA CEO Sharmini Naidoo. “But we feel strongly that we should have been consulted on the issue. “The NOCTC is a technical committee of the Committee of Transport Officials (COTO). This is a technical committee of the Minister of Transport and MECs of Transport (MINMEC), a government body that does not allow private sector bodies to serve on the Committee. It did not consult with the RFA on the reduction in overloading tolerances,” said Naidoo. While the industry understands government’s need to control overloading, several RFA members believe they should be targeting those who are overloading beyond the 5% tolerance. “We submitted a letter to the NOCTC who directed us to the Department of Justice,” said Naidoo, and the association won’t let the matter rest. “We need to be consulted so that we can inform our members.” The lack of forewarning resulted in queues of trucks backed up at the weighbridge causing enormous delays immediately after implementation of the new legislation. What it means in practical terms is that a “superlink” vehicle – which has a legal GVM under the bridge formula of 56-tons – could previously weigh a total (with its load) of 58.8-t before the traffic authorities would charge the operator with overloading and impound his vehicle and load. Under the new allowance it can only be 57.12-t (1.68-t less) before it is hit with the force of the law. A number of the big operators who had fitted special mass-measuring sensors to their vehicles so that they could fine-tune their loads to fit in with the maximum allowable limit – that 58.8-t for a superlink – have had to recalculate just how much they can load before being charged for overloading.