Restricted hours for project loads remains a contentious issue

Traffic authorities agree that road
and rail networks continue to be
the backbone of the South African
economy, and therefore it remains
imperative that they are protected and
preserved.
Which makes stringent laws around
the transportation of abnormal loads and
heavy project cargo necessary.
According to the Department of
Transport the damage to roads caused
by heavy-vehicle overloading runs into
hundreds of millions of rand while safety
of all road users must be guaranteed at
all times.
Gavin Kelly, technical and operations
manager of the Road Freight Association,
says legislation around the allowed travel
time of especially large abnormal loads
remains contentious.
“The amount of work that is to be
done and the amount of time open
to operators to move goods from
manufacturers and the ports to customers
remains an issue.”
Many of these vehicles are only
allowed to travel in daylight and not in
peak traffic time.
Edna Mamonyane of the Johannesburg
Metro Police says this is mainly because
it is safer to travel in the day, while it
also allows for well-rested drivers.
“Drivers must rest to be able to
function at their optimum level. They
are responsible for heavy vehicles with
valued cargo on board and already they
cannot react quickly just due to the
size of the vehicle. How much more
of a danger if you have a tired person
operating these vehicles?”
Her advice to operators is not to take
chances – either with their drivers or with
the loads.
“Overloading remains a problem for
traffic officials and we are very strict
in policing it. It is dangerous should
the driver of the truck lose control,
but also causes much damage to the
infrastructure.”
Kelly maintains that very few incidents
occur where road users are unhappy
with heavy load operators or even large
project cargo.
“Obviously one could not move this
during peak hour traffic, but we are
moving these large loads with the least
amount of negative effect on standard
traffic flows.”