Gov’t to Address Issue of Overloaded Trucks on the Roads

Minister of Transport and Works, Mike Henry says he will be using moral suasion as a first response, to address the problem of overloaded trucks plying the roadways, causing major damage and costing the government millions of dollars in repairs.
“My personal approach is to go and speak to them, go and visit the quarries because, what I don’t want is the heavy-handed approach,” he told JIS News, “.you must understand the impact that it has (overloading) so it’s a matter of being responsible for your own decisions and how it impacts on each one,” he said.Mr. Henry stressed that trucks are transporting far more weight now than the country’s roads and bridges were designed to handle.
He informed that the process toward implementing corrective measures and regulations was at an advanced stage, as funding is already place for the purchase of mobile scales.
Minister Henry stated however that scales would be put on the roads to conduct spot checks but this would not be the sole means of conducting weight verifications. “I want some scales at the quarry’s that will hold the quarry miner responsible for the overloading of the truck, which would begin to address the discipline which must be brought in the system,” he told JIS News.
Failure of truckers to adhere to new regulatory measures could see steps being taken where truckers may be asked to pay a licence fee, which could be as much as $100,000 per month. These funds would be used to repair the roads, the Minister informed.