Weigh station officials spread the word to truck drivers about laws on overloaded vehicles on Sunday. PUBLIC WORKS MINISTY
Officers at nearly 30 weigh stations across the country carried out an educational campaign for truckers to introduce the articles 26 and 60 of the road traffic law which prescribe stricter penalties for overloaded trucks.
The campaign comes after truck drivers and owners claimed that they were not fully aware of the law or the implementation of the measures previously.
Taing Pov, head of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport secretariat, told The Post on August 9 that prior to the implementation of articles 26 and 60 of the road traffic law including the additional stricter measures taken against overloaded vehicles, the ministry had conducted a comprehensive outreach campaign to educate all those involved in the transport industry.
But many drivers, he said, claimed that they did not know about the law when police imposed fines or penalties on them for being overloaded. This prompted the ministry to re-launch their campaign to educate truckers at weigh-stations located across the country.
“We educate them along with law enforcement so that they do not keep complaining that they do not know the law. This campaign will disseminate information on the law to all of these truck drivers. It started at the beginning of August,” he added.
According to Taing Pov, in the past year the ministry has imposed penalties on 177 heavy vehicles for being overloaded by putting them in impound for one year in addition to levying monetary fines.
Kong Sovann, a public health specialist and director of the International Safety Fund Programme, said extensive legal education must be clearly conducted on a regular basis before, during and after enforcement of the law.
This outreach education must be conducted until the target group receives the message and participates in enforcing the law by regularly obeying it.
“Hopefully, the sympathy from the ministry for these truckers has reached its limit, because in a technical sense the implementation of the law is weak if there is more sympathetic understanding than actual enforcement,” he said.
Article 60 of the road traffic law stipulates that overloading a truck in excess of 20 per cent of the permissible weight shall result in the payment of fines and the goods on the truck will be unloaded so the truck can be impounded for a period of one year.
“All vehicle owners should be aware of the permissible weight of their vehicle types to avoid overloading goods, thereby leading to a loss for them of money, assets and time. We call on all companies and individuals involved in the trucking and transport businesses to abide by the law,” Taing Pov said.
