EAC Stands to Save $1 Billion in Favour of Regional Vehicle Load Control Law
By Staff Writer
ARUSHA— The region stands to save more than one billion dollars per annum if it puts in place an efficient system—including an enabling legal framework—to manage vehicle loads, according to the EAC Deputy Secretary General (Planning and Infrastructure) Dr. Enos Bukuku.
“The overall savings in the region as a result of efficient oversight on axle load [vehicle weight] control from lower transport costs, road and bridges maintenance bills easily exceeds a billion dollars per annum,” the Deputy Secretary General asserted when addressing a task force meeting convened to draft the EAC Vehicle Load Control Bill, 2012 which opened today at the Sarova Panafric Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya.
Dr. Bukuku thus called on the EAC Partner States to quickly agree to a regional law governing axle loads.
“The cry of our transporters, consumers and producers in the region is that this law be fast tracked to enable efficient and transparent operations of transit transport in the region to bring down the current very high transport costs that stifle investments, industrialization and international trade,” Dr. Bukuku said.
He added that governments in the region also stood to benefit from the improved regional axle load control oversight procedures and the regional ICT connectivity of the weigh scales among others.
He observed that by harmonizing the approach to axle load control, the region would not only remove a costly logistics burden from the backs of the operators and investors, but “also dramatically put a shine on the Brand East Africa that we are at the moment promoting as a prime investment destination”. The EAC Vehicle Load Control Bill, 2012 to be discussed all of this week by EAC Partner State technocrats and ministers from a cross section of sectors is touted by infrastructure experts as crucial for reducing incidences of overloading on the region’s road network.
The Bill proposes, among others, that payments of overloading fees be done administratively through prepaid coupons or electronic transfers and discourages the payment of cash at source. Also, payment through the court systems will be eliminated.
It is the culmination of a year long process during which Partner States discussed technical details on vehicle loading. A study funded by JICA recommended that the region adopts harmonized load limits, decriminalizes overloading and develops state of the art weighbridge stations.
The study was discussed at several experts and stakeholders’ workshops and eventually was adopted by a committee of Permanent Secretaries in August 2011. The highlight among the items discussed and agreed was the adoption of a 56-tonne gross vehicle weight limit within the region. This also conforms to the COMESA and SADC limits, thus bringing the whole Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) region into a harmonized vehicle load regime.
The proposed Bill aims to put the technically agreed parameters into legal context and the emerging regional law will supersede national laws on vehicle load control. It is expected that the implementation of the law will greatly reduce congestion at weighbridge stations and eliminate bribery since all transactions will be ICT based and all weighing stations will be linked electronically to a central data processing station.
Heads of delegation at the experts’ task force meeting were unanimous in their call for expeditious action to turn the bill into law while also urging that discussions are governed by a spirit of give-and-take.
After the conclusion of the technical experts’ meeting on Tuesday, the draft Bill will be ready for consideration by other levels of the Community policy organs, and it is expected the Bill will be discussed by sessions of Senior Officials on Wednesday, Permanent Secretaries on Thursday and finally by Ministers on Friday 17 February.
Once agreed upon, the proposed Bill will be forwarded to the EAC’s policy making organ—the Council of Ministers, for consideration and ultimately to the East African Legislative Assembly for debate and enactment into Community law.
The application of different procedures on axle load control had been raised as a major challenge at past Council meetings hence the former mandating the EAC Secretariat to undertake a study on harmonisation of axle load control laws and regulations.