Transporters are “losing loads and revenue” at the Martins Drift border post in Botswana as local authorities are allegedly failing to implement the 5% weighing tolerance which they say is causing “unnecessary loss of transit time and charges”.
A Zambian trucking company, which did not provide its name, has lodged a non-tariff barrier (NTB) complaint after one of its tankers – which was carrying sulphuric acid from South Africa – was weighed at the Martins Drift weighbridge and the 5% weight tolerance was not applied. “This is not a once-off incidence,” reads the complaint.
According to the company, the steer axle weight was within the 5% weight tolerance – on an axle set or gross vehicle mass (GVM) – agreed to by South African, Zambian and Botswana authorities. The complaint alleges that this tolerance is not being applied at Martins Drift. MD of the GSF Group, Dhiren Krishna, told FTW that his company had lost loads and revenue due to the delays at border.
Transit delays translate into triangulation and load allocation issues, which in turn upset the entire apple cart with respect to load planning.” He said it was difficult to pass border delay-related standing time charges onto the client. Krishna believes it is “general ignorance of the regulations and multi-lateral agreements between the regional governments” that is driving this.
“In our opinion, in order to end this, the first step at grass-roots level must be a targeted mass campaign from all the regional governments to educate all stakeholders (on the exact regulations and specifications, including permissible deviations/ tolerances) governing cross-border cargo handling,” he said.
Martins Drift border post ... 5% weighing tolerance not being applied.
