Ministry to implement regulation on axle load

Centre spread, May 6, 2009
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah
THE Ministry of Roads and Highways will begin the implementation of the regulation on common standards and procedures for West African countries on the control of the gauge, weight and axle load of all vehicles from June 1, 2009.
The sector Minister, Mr Joe Gidisu, who announced this yesterday, stated that the ministry would hold a stakeholders’ forum to educate key players in the road transport industry on the enforcement of the regulation before the end of this month.
He was briefing the media on the outcome of the trip of a government delegation to Niger to intervene in the case involving some stranded Ghanaian truck drivers at the Burkina Faso-Niger border.
The trip was in response to an SOS message received from the Ghana Embassy in Burkina Faso on the plight of some Ghanaian drivers who were stranded due to overloading and other offences.
The Union Economique Monitaire L’Ouest African (UEMOA) Regulation 2005, which was adopted by ECOWAS, has set May 31, 2009 as the deadline for measures to be adopted by member states for the control of gauge, weight and axle load of all vehicles.
Mr Gidisu said the government would ensure that the UEMOA regulation was strictly enforced right from the country’s ports of entry to prevent roads from premature deterioration.
The specified standards, as stipulated by the regulation, are a maximum height of four metres above the road surface, 11.5 tonnes per single axle and 51 tonnes maximum for six-axle trucks.
He said the government would marshal all the necessary infrastructure and logistics required to achieve the objectives as contained in the UEMOA regulation.
He said in line with that, steps were being taken to restore the weighing scales installed in Tema and Takoradi to full operation as soon as practicable, explaining that in the interim the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) would make available portable weigh bridges at the ports to regulate loading.
He said with the completion of the weigh bridge station at Offinso, checks could be made on trucks plying the Acca-Paga corridor.
Mr Gidisu added that height gauges would also be made available at all checkpoints along the corridor.
“While the government is determined to make all necessary logistical support available to enable the axle load staff and the police to perform, acts of malfeasance will never be countenanced under any circumstance,” he said.
On the plight of the stranded Ghanaian truck drivers, he said at the time of the visit of the delegation, 73 out of the original 300 vehicles detained since January this year were left to be processed.
He said at a meeting with government officials in Niamey, it was made clear that a huge investment had been made in the road infrastructure and that the government was determined to prevent their premature deterioration due to overloading.
Mr Gidisu said after deliberations, the Ghanaian delegation and the Nigerien government officials came to an agreement that trucks found to be overloaded must settle their commensurate overloading fees.
In addition, it agreed that action would be expedited on trucks going through custom and administrative formalities to avoid undue delay.
The minister said considering the difficulty in arranging for trucks to transport the excess cargo from the weigh bridge stations, which had no storage facilities, it was agreed that overloaded trucks which had settled the overloading fees and gone through custom and administrative formalities be allowed to go to Niamey, where they would have access to storage facilities and easily arrange for the transport of the excess cargo.