• Home
• /
• World
• /
• Gulf

Implementation of law on axle weight limit deferred

ABU DHABI – Owners and operators of transport vehicles with loads exceeding 2.5 tonnes were told yesterday that the implementation of the law on axle weight limits allowed on the roads has been put off 'till further notice.'

The decision by Abu Dhabi Police is seen as a response to calls, mainly by building contractors, asking the government to intervene after transportation companies raised their rates by 40 per cent.

"The General Headquarters of Abu Dhabi Police announces to owners and operators of transportation vehicles whose load is in excess of 2.5 tonnes that the implementation of the law on axle weight limits has been postponed till further notice," said the Abu Dhabi Police announcement.

The law, which was supposed to have come into effect on January 1, imposes fines of up to Dh10,000 on heavy vehicles exceeding the axle weight limits. The move was meant to help preserve the life span of roads. The law was to be applied for all violations involving axle weights, committed by trucks and mechanical equipment. The fines range from Dh500 to Dh10,000, and the heavy vehicle found violating would be seized for a month in case the violation was repeated with the imposition of a further Dh1000.

The law specified the weight limits of vehicles. Officials had said the law would help "preserve the hypothetical life span of paved roads in the emirate of Abu Dhabi."

According to sources in the construction sector, they received notices from transportation companies raising their rates for transportation of building material by 40 per cent, which means added losses to those incurred in 2005. Transportation companies, especially 'ready-mix' vehicles, told contracting companies that the cost of transportation would increase by 40 per cent from January 1, as a result of the rise in transportation costs after the introduction of the law on axle weight limits. Such an increase, according to sources in the sector, would mean a rise in building costs in the country by 30 per cent.

"That could cause damage to the (construction) sector all over the country. This sector depends heavily on transportation," said the source.

He said the axle weight limits law was important and transportation companies were given some five months to start implementing it.

According to the law that was suspended, all heavy vehicles used for goods transportation would undergo tests at fixed and mobile axle weight stations. There are six such stations in Abu Dhabi at Seih Shuaib, Musafah, Mina Zayed (as well as at the entrance of warehouses), Khatum Al Shakla in Al Ain and Ghuaifat in the Western Region. The high cost of setting up of these stations was not disclosed.

Transportation companies saw the law as a means of curtailing 'unfair competition' by some unscrupulous players, which offer lower prices at the expense of overloading their vehicles in violation of the axle weight limit rules.

But calls by many construction companies on the government to intervene appear to have yielded the response to postpone the implementation of the law.