I am currently involved in a project for the South African National
Department of Transport, which involves the development of a national
overload control strategy for heavy goods vehicles. One of the tasks is
to review the current 5% tolerance that applies to all maximum
permissible masses (single axles, axle units, Gross Vehicle Mass and
Gross Combination Mass). The tolerance is a prosecution guideline,
which gives the transport operator a domain of grace, primarily to allow
for payload distribution difficulties. This means that the vehicle
and/or one or more of the axles/axle units may be overloaded by up to 5%
without the driver or transport operator being charged for overloading
– the driver merely receives a warning. The problem facing the
authorities is that, because of the fiercely competitive market and
profit incentives, many operators load their vehicles to the absolute
limit – up to an additional 2.8 tons of payload on a 56-ton vehicle
combination - without fear of being fined for overloading. If the
vehicle is found to be overloaded by more than 5% in terms of any of the
mass regulations, the operator is charged and loses the benefit of the
tolerance. The load must be rectified according to the permissible
masses excluding the tolerance before the vehicle is allowed to
proceed.
One of the possible amendments under consideration is to reduce the
tolerance for the total vehicle mass (GVM/GCM) to 1 or 2% and to retain
the tolerance on axles and axle units at 5% (or even increase it
slightly).
I would sincerely appreciate information or comments from other
countries with regards any similar tolerance policies for vehicle and
axle mass regulations.
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Paul A Nordengen
Manager: Infrastructure Management Systems
Tel: +27-12-841-3945
Fax: +27-12-841-3232
Cell: +27-83-229-0668
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Internet: http://www.csir.co.za
Postal Address:
CSIR Transportek
PO Box 395
Pretoria
South Africa
0001
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