Traffic authorities get tough on permits

Overweight containers are major headache KEVIN MAYHEW CONTAINERS THAT are over their legal and declared load weight pose the biggest problem for road traffic authorities in KwaZulu-Natal, which feeds the country’s major transport corridor and route for project cargo and abnormal loads. So much so that the KwaZulu-Natal Road Traffic Inspectorate division, which deals with abnormal loads, has stated that it will not be issuing any permits for containers until it is satisfied that the weights have been correctly declared. “We have to rely on accurate declarations by transporters, but even they are being duped by importers about the true weights and it slows up the process,” a spokesperson told FTW. She added that the main source of abnormal loads at present was Eskom which was delivering major capital items such as transformers to various points around the country as part of its campaign to stabilise power provision. “These are arriving at a rate of about two a month and weigh in the region of 230 to 350 tons,” she said. The division is responsible for ensuring that all permits required for transport through KZN are correct before a load enters the public road network and it then monitors its progress which by its nature is very slow. Once beyond the province’s borders, the equivalent authority in the next province takes over responsibility.