Garth Bolton

A harmonised vehicle overload control system for southern Africa with a 5% tolerance level on axle and gross combination mass was one of the many topics discussed at the recent Gauteng meeting of the Institute of Road Transport Engineers.

South Africa and its neighbouring countries may soon share a harmonised vehicle overload control system with the same maximum loads on axles and axle units, bridge formula and vehicle dimensions. The overload allowance which in South Africa has been reduced to the current 2%, could go back to 5% again.
This follows agreements and recommendations made by delegates from COMESA and SADEC at a workshop in Dar-es-Salaam and technical meeting in Nairobi, attended by South Africa officials and IRTE committee member (cross-border) Barney Curtis.

COMESA and the World Bank’s Sub-Saharan Africa Transport Programme (SSATP) co-sponsored the regional workshop and deliberated on the outcome of a major study on vehicle overload control, recently conducted jointly by SADC and COMESA with technical assistance from SSATP. This activity is the biggest push ever in eastern and southern Africa towards ending the current situation characterised by lack of implementation of vehicle overload control. The workshop concluded with participants adopting proposed implementation guidelines and outlining recommended solutions including standardised vehicle and axle / axle unit load limits, harmonised data management and adoption of an SADC MOU on vehicle loading. Other recommendations proposed a cross-border overload system linked to customs at all border posts, harmonised weighbridge clearance certificates, regional training, design / implementation of anti-corruption programmes and dissemination of information to the public to create awareness of the importance of overload control.

Commenting on the recommendations and the technical meeting in Nairobi, Curtis told fellow IRTE members that there is not going to be a ban on left-hand drive vehicles, simply because Angola and the DRC are LHD countries.
The regions also decided on 10-ton single axles with dual tyres, 18-ton on tandem and 24-ton on tridem axles and 56-ton GCM, while the region agreed to adopt SA’s bridge formula to protect its axles. Limits on single tyres were still being worked on.

Guest speaker Garth Bolton of Cargo Carriers gave an interesting speech on the need for more road building and road maintenance in South Africa and showed various cost breakdowns slides to demonstrate why, in most cases, investment in roads and road transport is more economical in the long run than investment in rail infrastructure and rail transport. He has also worked out that apart from fuel wastage people’s time which, if they earn one of the monthly incomes given below, works out at a corresponding loss in cents or rands per minute:

• R5 000         R0.55c
• R10 000       R1.10
• R20 000       R2.20
• R30 000       R3.30
• R40 000       R4.30
• R50 000       R5.50

Overview

Outgoing chairman Dave King gave an overview of the past year reporting record attendance of up to 90 people at monthly meetings addressed by excellent speakers. On the cards was another IRTE visit to Germany in October, sponsored by several OEMs.

Twelve new members had joined during the year, with several others having had their membership reinstated and more applications having gone through the IRTE, London, for approval.
He paid homage to two staunch IRTE members who passed away during the year – Jack Webster and Ted Stanton.
Both he and technical committee chairman Jim Campbell highlighted the need to bring more professional people into the transport industry. King said the committee had decided to start an awareness advertising campaign about minimum criteria for IRTE membership and start a funding process for a Jack Webster Trust Fund to provide a bursary for tertiary education to help people promote themselves out of the workshop into a managerial role.