Lower maximum
payload could
be introduced
- Omar
Anna Cox
TRANSPORT MINISTER Dullah Omar has put together a high-level team of officials from the Department of Transport to work closely with South African National Roads Agency, provincial governments and specialists from the CSIR to address overloading.
Their brief is to urgently reformulate the national overload control strategy.
The time has come to review the 56-ton gross combination mass limit currently in force in South Africa, which Is one of the highest in the world, he said.
"There is a proposal that I consider amending the Road Traffic Act to introduce a lower maximum payload for road freight. This would have two major effects - it would add impact to overload control measures aimed at reducing road externality costs and it would increase the unit cost of road freight in such a way as to create a price incentive for certain categories of customers to switch from road to rail - always taking into account the fact that the road freight industry, unlike rail, receives no direct subsidy," he said.
