– Bruce Goatley, NCT’s Logistics Manager –
Overloading in the timber industry has been significantly
reduced due to self-regulation and improved efficiencies.
The timber industry and Road Traffic Management System (RTMS)
collaborated in 2007 to initiate a programme intended to reduce the
incidence of truck overloading, ensure vehicle fitness, and promote
driver wellness. The RTMS is based on self-regulation by transport
operators and consignees who voluntarily joined the programme
taking responsibility for the correct loading, dispatch and receipt of
loads in their supply chains.
Self-regulation was formalised on 8 June 2012 in the Government Gazette 35413 – (edited below) section 330A-D in what is referred to as the consignee/consignor legislation:
“330A. Offering and Acceptance of goods on overloaded vehicles is prohibited
(1) A consignor or consignee of goods shall not offer goods or accept goods if the vehicle in which it is
transported is not loaded in terms of the provisions for the loading and transportation of goods as
prescribed in this Act.
(2) A consignor or consignee shall not conclude a contract with the operator to transport goods on a vehicle,
if the vehicle is overloaded when such load is transported on such vehicle.
“330B. Consignor to have a method of determining mass
(1) A consignor shall use a method of establishing the mass of a vehicle and any axle or axle unit of such
vehicle that is sufficiently goods accurate as to ensure that such vehicle axle or axles are not overloaded in
terms of Part IV of Chapter VI.
330C. Goods declaration to be carried on a motor vehicle
A person operating on a public road a motor vehicle which carries goods shall be in possession of a
declaration.
330D. Consignor or Consignee to insure goods to be carried on a motor vehicle and the motor vehicle
A consignor or consignee of goods shall not transport goods on a public road or accept goods unless such
transportation is fully insured for damages that can occur as a result of an incident.
In accordance with the above legislation, all overloaded vehicles are summarily rejected and the delivery note cancelled. As a responsible business enterprise, NCT fully endorses and adheres to the National Road Traffic Act 93 (of 1996) and its amendments. NCT is obliged to share all weighbridge data with the authorities and RTMS where overloading along with other trip detail is interrogated. A monthly report analysing this data is published on the RTMS website http://www.rtms-forestry.co.za/ once verified by the steering committee.
While the 100% rejection of an overloaded vehicle may seem counter-intuitive, given that we are trying to keep overloaded vehicles off the roads, it remains a legal and governance requirement to do so. What is evident, is that this strategy has had a significant impact on the number of overloaded timber trucks on our roads and provided the timber industry with the opportunity to pilot the PBS (Smart Truck) truck project.
The unintended consequence of rejecting overloaded trucks is that the excess or overloaded timber is dumped to correct the load weight.
This has given rise to some questionable practices when it comes to reloading or collecting the excesstimber that was dumped.
As best practice, we do all we can to encourage suppliers and transporters to recover any timberremoved from the load and return it to source.
The timber industry has played a pioneering roll in the PBS programme, being the first industry to introduce Smart Trucks to South Africa.
Subsequent innovation by industry stakeholders and timber transporters has seen significant improvement in truck and trailer designs andconfigurations in recent years to maximise payload and reduce costs.
Source: NCT Forestry
