Lorries can carry 10pc more

DAILY EXPRESS NEWS 2009-01-20
Kota Kinabalu: Lorries and low loaders in Sabah will be allowed to carry 10 per cent more than their Maximum Permissible Laden Weight (MPLW) effective Wednesday.
Road Transport Department (RTD) Director-General Datuk Solah Mat Hassan said the matter is expected to be finalised by Wednesday, including the setting up of the guidelines.
He was speaking after chairing a closed-door dialogue with associations of lorry transport, bus and mini bus, express bus and taxis at Hyatt Regency Kinabalu, Tuesday.
He said approval would be given on a case-to-case basis and applications should be made at the RTD Sabah headquarters in Jalan Bundusan through its Automotive Engineering Unit.
Presently, the RTD already allows lorry transporters in the State to carry five per cent more than the vehicle's permissible maximum weight but an additional five per cent was allowed after the dialogue.
The lorry association had appealed to the RTD to increase the MPLW or in Bahasa Malaysia Berat Dengan Muatan (BDM) of lorries in Sabah, which was quite low compared to those in Peninsular Malaysia.
Solah said this resulted in them having difficulties to do their job such as when transporting machinery and equipment necessary for development.
"This is part of RTD's move to assist in the development of the State," he said.
The matter had been raised over the past year but the RTD was waiting for the roads Weight Restriction Order (WRO) to be reviewed by the Public Works Department (PWD) nationwide including Sabah.
So far, he said there have been three meetings on the issue but it was up to the Works Ministry to set the time frame for the revision.
On the contention that roads in Sabah are not of the same quality as those in the peninsula and cannot cope with heavier loads, he reiterated that it was for this purpose that the PWD was conducting the revision of the WRO.
Those found loading above 10 per cent up to 35 per cent exceeding the MPLW would be issued a RM300 compound.
While those overloading above 35 per cent of the MPLW would be taken to court under Section 19 of the Commercial Vehicles Licensing Board Act and the offenders could be fined RM1,000 up to RM10,000 or two years' jail or both.
"Those who had been issued with summonses prior to Wednesday will still have to pay them," he said.
As for express buses, Solah said the RTD had decided to consider relaxing the two-driver requirement for the Kota Kinabalu-Sandakan route, which is about 330km and slightly over the requirement of changing drivers every 300km.
"We decided to relax this but they must break their journey every four hours to ensure the driver gets enough rest for the safety of the passengers," he said.
The department, he said understood the difficulties of the express bus operators in Sabah where it is quite difficult to get qualified drivers with the Public Service Vehicle (PSV) licence.
Another problem affecting express bus operators in Sabah, which he described as "weird" is cases of stones being hurled at the vehicles resulting in their window glass or windshield breaking.
In this respect, he said it was agreed that a three-month notice be first issued to operators to replace the broken glass (above six-inch cracks).
"They told us that it will take them some time to order the replacement parts so it is decided that RTD will give them three months to do it and this applies not only for express bus but all buses," he said.
Solah said that commercial vehicle owners would also be given the opportunity to appeal within one week if they are dissatisfied with Puspakom's decision pertaining to the periodical inspection of their vehicles.
There are some new regulations, which are still unknown to them such as the requirement for all the vehicle tyres, whether original or retread, to bear the MS Sirim logo, he said.
"We agree that whenever there is new regulation it will be disseminated directly to them and also in the RTD website," he said.
Solah said RTD is now working towards consultation and getting cooperation from the stakeholders on anything that is related to the department.
Expressing satisfaction with the dialogue, he said it should be organised more frequently, perhaps by the Sabah RTD itself with all the stake players as it would bring about benefits to all.