The Ministry of Public Works and Transport said the authorities had stopped and imposed total fines of 532,800,000 riel ($131,000) on 255 overloaded trucks throughout the country in November alone.

The ministry said in a report that the authorities had regularly deployed mobile forces and stopped the trucks at 27 target checkpoints throughout the country. The number of trucks the mobile forces stopped and imposed fines on increased from 212 the previous month, the report said.

It said Kampong Cham saw the most cases with 45 overloaded trucks stopped, followed by Kampong Thom at 33. Phnom Penh and the provinces of Svay Rieng, Prey Veng and Kandal recorded only one case each.

The ministry’s under-secretary of state Kong Vimean told The Post on Sunday that the overloaded trucks carried between five and 34 tonnes more than the legal limit.

“We have achieved good results. If we don’t take action, [roads] will be destroyed,” he said.

Vimean said the authorities will inspect overloaded trucks regularly.

“We have 27 truck weighing stations across the country and we have mobile forces to conduct inspections too. We cannot eliminate overloaded trucks overnight because we still have a limited number of officials and checkpoints while the number of vehicles has markedly increased,” he said.

Kong Sovan, road safety expert and technical adviser at the Ministry of Rural Development, urged the Ministry of Public Works and Transport to take stricter measures by increasing the number of mobile forces and checkpoints to inspect overloaded trucks.

“We spend a lot of money from the state budget to pave roads, and expect it to last, say, 15 years, but it won’t last that long if roads are not well-maintained and overloaded trucks continue travelling on them.

“If the road sustains damage too soon, we will have to use millions of dollars from the state coffers to repair the same road. Truck owners should not think only of their benefits,” he said.