The long road to harmony in East Africa’s overload control

Despite several unresolved issues standing in the way of harmonisation of overload control in the East African region, the project is moving forward, with a draft final report currently in the hands of the EAC secretariat. A stakeholder workshop is due to be held this month. But it’s been a long road, says Federation of East and Southern Africa Road Transport Associations executive director Barney Curtis. And for road transport operators specialising in this market – project specialists included – it’s a particularly relevant debate. “Fifteen or so years back, Comesa (Common Market for East and Southern Africa), EAC (East African Community) and SADC (Southern African Development Community) each wanted to harmonise the road traffic regulations in their regions and then recommend that their member states implement them,” says Curtis. SADC was the first to achieve this. “In 2000, at a meeting in Malawi involving SADC and Comesa delegates, Comesa agreed to adopt the SADC load limits. It ratified this decision some years later – but while EAC accepted what Comesa and SADC had achieved, it still had member states (particularly Kenya) that did not want to go along with what Comesa and SADC were recommending to their member states.” Around six years later came the Comesa/EAC/SADC Tripartite alliance. “Of note,” says Curtis, “is that the Tripartite is not a legal entity, but an agreement between the three Regional Economic Communities (RECs). “The intention – among others – of the Tripartite was (and still is) that there is harmonisation in all sectors across the three regions.” And according to Curtis, the three RECs also agreed that, if one REC carried out a project to harmonise some particular set of laws (eg load limits), then it did so on behalf of the other two RECs. In other words, the other two RECs participate in the process and do not have to duplicate the effort – and they then have the outcomes of the project ratified by their own secretariats and the outcomes become the recommendations to their member states. One of the first activities in which the Tripartite became involved was the workshop, facilitated by Comesa, to harmonise load limits and overloading control held in Nairobi in 2008. The outcomes effectively confirmed what was agreed in Malawi in 2000, but there were some matters outstanding, like super single tyres, liftable axles, interlinks among others. This prompted Fesarta to commission the CSIR to undertake a desktop study to address these outstanding items and come up with recommendations. The report was finalised in November last year. The EAC meanwhile continued to have difficulty achieving harmonisation amongst its member states, particularly Kenya, says Curtis. To solve this one, it set up a project which was given to a Japanese consulting firm, PADECO, with Fesarta one of the contracted experts. Scheduled for completion by August this year, it is hoped that the project will produce harmonisation of all the outstanding contentious items. All three RECs will then ratify these outcomes and they will become recommendations to their member states. “In other words,” says Curtis, “what is agreed in the EAC project, will become a recommendation to SADC member states.” While agreement has so far been reached on a range of issues, from the decriminalisation of overload fines/fees to 10- and 24-ton axle/ axle unit mass limits, several items remain unsresolved. These include: • 18 tons tandem axle unit limit. (Kenya has 16 tons) • 56 tons gcm limit. (Kenya will go to 52 tons) • Mass limit for the 385/65R22.5 super-single tyre in tandem and tridem axle units • Mass limit for the 425/445/65R22.5 super-single tyre and its use in tandem and tridem axle units • Mass limits where air suspension is used • Weighbridge allowance for gvm and gcm “The dimension limits are to be covered in a separate project, currently being carried out by the University of Dar es Salaam,” says Curtis. “However, because of the university’s lack of knowledge on this subject, we may become involved.”