Overloading is the mother of all road crashes

 

Well, if transport minister Wee Ka Siong has been just kissing up to the voters, his initiatives over the past few days have been quite heart-warming.

Recently, there was a case of a lorry driver who was distressed as he couldn’t renew his commercial vehicle driving licence because he had been blacklisted for not settling many summonses.

The driver pleaded that he was the victim of his employer, the transport company, which had overloaded his truck and then didn’t settle the summonses when he was hauled up for overloading.

He had tears in his eyes when he told his story. Wee also started tearing up when he realised what a good deed he could do to solve this problem. As the transport minister, Wee has all the power as provided for under the Road Transport Act to order the issuance of the driver’s GDL license.

A few days later, Wee called for a review of some of the road traffic regulations which he said were unfair burdens placed on lorry drivers by their employers.

He acknowledged there were weaknesses in the Act and asked the Road Transport Department (JPJ) as well as the Land Public Transport Agency (Apad) to address the issue of consignors forcing drivers to overload rather than bring their lorries to be weighed at JPJ’s weighbridges.

However, there are two sides to the story as pointed out by Paul David, a veteran in the engineering of commercial vehicles.

“The owners of the trucks sometimes don’t have much control over them (the drivers) once they leave base, and the drivers pick up loads on the way to fill their pockets. The owners know this is happening but they lack control. So when the truck is stopped for overloading, they disavow responsibility.

“There is no loophole. The owners of the trucks are responsible for what their truck is carrying and if they are overloaded, then the owners have to answer for it.

“The driver is used as the scapegoat because the truck owners think the truck cannot be confiscated. If the law allows the truck and the goods to be seized on commission of the offence, then everyone will wake up.

“Why is it that the trucks cannot be weighed at (nearby) weigh stations and instead are asked to travel to out-of-the-way weigh stations. What happened to the portable load cells that were used before? They can be used anywhere,” said David.

Portable load cells are used to weigh each axle and the weight of all the axles added up is an indication of the vehicle’s total laden weight. While portable weighbridges have too much variance for their readings to be used as evidence in court, it can be a guide for the enforcement official on whether to issue a summons for the driver to appear with the offending vehicle at a JPJ weigh station.

At this juncture of Malaysia’s political turbulence and the disruption of the historical alliances between Umno, MCA and MIC, it is timely to analyse how this influenced the land transport industry including systemic corruption.

In the 60 years when Umno dominated national politics, permits to operate “A-class” general cargo lorries, long-distance express buses and taxis were effectively distributed, though mostly in the names of party supporters and their friends.

The party bosses would arrange for these permits to be rented to transport operators who were disqualified by the New Economic Policy from applying and owning lorry permits in their own right.

So this is the “pajak” or rental system that underlines Malaysia’s transport operators seemingly incorrigible desire to game the system by overloading. If one is of a generous disposition, one could say that these entrepreneurs are trying to offset the rental of the truck permit.

The immorality of a rental culture in the land transport industry has metastasized to an almost total diminishment of the weighbridge stations operated by JPJ.

How many of the weighbridges are in working condition nationwide?

Most have been sabotaged beyond repair, and conveniently so for the serial overloaders. These defunct weighbridges are mute testimony to a failed attempt to minimise overloading. An example of a white elephant weigh station is the one on the East Coast Expressway at Gambang.

Another example of the level of tolerance for overloading is that of twin-steer trucks. These trucks are rated at more than six tonnes for each of the front axles and eight tonnes for each of the twin rear axles.

These four-axled heavy trucks are rated to be at 29 tonnes or thereabouts and are used in Europe and Japan for general cargo lorries and long-distance transportation.

It’s only in Malaysia that these twin-steer trucks are permitted to be registered as dump trucks for the carriage of sand and quarry material. Very heavy stuff and very heavy overloading.

Overloading by heavy commercial vehicles is the mother of all road traffic crashes and the cause of premature damage to roads. All these are burdens to taxpayers and takes food out of the mouths of the less well-off.

While there are many other serious matters that the transport ministry should fix, the big one is that of food and delivery motorcyclists in the gig economy. Two landmark court decisions, the most recent in the UK, have ruled that ride-hailing workers in the gig economy should be entitled to some employee benefits.

Could the ministry carry out a survey of their working conditions and find out if there are elements of exploitation? Could the ministry enforce some road traffic laws nonchalantly transgressed by some food delivery riders? Don’t forget the super-app owners who created the algorithm and some elements which reward overly speedy deliveries. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.