Transporters call for tougher laws to check overloading

Transporters want the government to create legal measures to effectively curb overloading on Kenyan roads, saying the current laws are not weak.

Kenya Transport Association (KTA) said the Traffic Act, which outlines the punishment for overloading, only targets drivers who are not the real culprits.

“The law should punish all those responsible for overloading including truck owners as well as managers along all the loading points that generate the cargo,” KTA secretary Paul Maiyo said.

An inter-ministerial committee on overloading control formed in December last year which recommended the establishment of weighbridges at all the loading point has not been able to push this agenda, he added.

Axle load control measures, which the government put in place in 2008 have not effectively reduced damage to the roads due to widespread corruption and weak weighbridge management that allows overloading, a recent study said.

Between 50 – 55 per cent of the trucks plying Kenyan roads are still overloaded, some with cargo of up to 60 tonnes, according to a study titled “Analytical Comparative Transport Costs along the Northern Corridor” which was conducted by CPCS Transcom for the Northern Corridor Transit Transport Co-ordination Authority.

Out of 382,000 trucks weighed last year, 2,208 were penalised for overloading, earning the government Sh95.5 million, according to the managers of the Mariakani weighbridge.

Overloaded trucks

Mariakani and Athi River weighbridges have earned the State about Sh130 million in fines from overloaded trucks since they were privatised early last year.

However, this is far from a reflection of the reality since unscrupulous truckers who overload are not punished, Maiyo said.

As one of the measures to check corruption, the government early last year started the process of privatising the 15 weighbridges from the port of Mombasa to the Malaba border.

The government has already privatised Mariakani and Athi River weighbridges, which will from next month be operated by new managers after the contract of the current team, Otieno Odongo and Partners, expires.

In October 2008, President Kibaki issued a directive which reduced the number of axles allowed on Kenyan roads from four to three, lowering the limit of the gross weight of a truck to 48 tonnes.

Prior to this, trucks could carry upto70 tonnes, which caused massive road damage.

In Kenya, every axle, which is supposed to weigh nine tonnes, is weighed separately and the result added to determine the weight of the load.

The weighbridge approaches are slanted due to wear and tear and loose containerised cargo is likely to shift from one point to the other giving wrong axle readings, KTA said, adding that those who deliberately overload the trucks deliver their cargo at night.

The CPCS Transcom report said that transporters are able to bribe their way past the weighbridges.

The report says it costs between Sh11,250 - Sh18,750 to haul overloaded cargo of 20 tonnes from Mombasa to Nairobi and between Sh18,750- Sh37,500 to move the cargo from Mombasa to Kampala.

Aging weighbridges

To move the same cargo from Mombasa to Kigali, a transporter spends Sh56,250 -Sh75,000 per trip, the report said.

To move the load from Mombasa to Bujumbura and Mombasa to Kigali, transporters spend Sh75,000 - Sh100,000.

There are seven weighbridges operated along the main Northern Corridor route between Mombasa and Malaba in Kenya, which are supposed to ensure that the weight of the cargo does not exceed the allowable limit of 27 tonnes.

The government plans to replace the aging weighbridges with modern ones.

Bribery is prevalent at the weighbridges, notes the report and the corruption is often planned and arranged ahead of time.