East African Community Press release / Region must discard conflicting vehicle weight limits, says EAC Secretary General
ARUSHA, Tanzania, May 30, 2011/African Press Organization (APO)/ — A stakeholders’ workshop to deliberate on the harmonization of the laws and regulations governing vehicle weight limits in the region opened today at the Silver Springs Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya.
The EAC Secretariat in collaboration with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) organized the 30-31 May, 2011 workshop, the second of three such workshops to be held, to review the Interim Report of the JICA/EAC Study on the Harmonization of Vehicle Overload Control Laws and Regulations.
A key outcome expected from the workshops is that a harmonized legal framework will be agreed among the Partner States by August 2011.
Opening the workshop, the EAC Secretary General, Amb. Dr. Richard Sezibera, described efforts to harmonize vehicle weight limits as critical and an indication of the high priority the EAC Partner States have placed on the improvement of transport infrastructure. This, he said would spur efficiency and lower the cost of doing business in the EAC.
“If we can ensure efficiencies in the transport sector we shall be able, literally overnight, to reduce costs of doing business and conducting trade in our region by over 50%. This would be a big boost to the competitiveness of the East African Common Market,” the Secretary General asserted. He said the current setup “penalizes producers, consumers and industry and further increases the cost of doing business.”
“What does a transporter forced to conform to the two [different] axle weight loading requirements do with the excess tonnage on crossing borders? Unload? Hire more trucks?” the EAC chief executive wondered. “In any case the increased cost and inefficiency is passed on to the customer,” he added.
“We have little option but to discard the existing system and harmonize the axle load requirements,” he declared. He noted that harmonization of the axle load control measures also provides the bonus of East African roads being kept at a high standard through the avoidance of overloading of infrastructure.
The application of disparate regulations on axle load control (vehicle weight limits) is one of the major factors impeding efficient transport within the region. At the moment, weight limits vary between 48 and 56 tons and such disparities contribute to delays experienced by good vehicles, especially at weighbridges.
Experts from PADECO, the firm conducting the Study, suggest the region could save as much as $7 million per year with a one-hour reduction in transit times.
JICA representative (Kenya Office), Mr. Shigeo Nakagawa pledged Japan’s continued support to the EAC in the area of infrastructure development, where the Agency is facilitating a number of initiatives. He said JICA looked forward to its assistance to this region contributing to the self-reliance efforts of the Community and nation building.
The two-day workshop will among others, review existing charges/fees/fines and the proposed strategy for harmonized charging; discuss axle load and gross vehicle limits and accommodation of vehicle technology development; weighbridges and their operations and management; and formulation of a proposed EAC regional legal instrument.
More than 50 technocrats from EAC Partner States’ Ministries of Roads, Transport, Infrastructure and EAC Affairs, among others, transport agencies as well as representatives of the private sector, other regional blocs and development partners are in attendance.
It is the second of three such meetings where stakeholders discuss Study findings and proposals. The first workshop was held in Arusha in February this year.
Notes to Editors
Cross-border transport is 3–5 times more expensive in Africa than in Asia and Latin America. For example, truck transport from Mombasa to Kampala over a distance of 1,100 km takes 5 days, of which 19 hours is spent crossing borders and weighbridges.
A conservative estimate is that each one-hour reduction in such crossing time would bring USD 7 million per year in benefits to the EAC region.
The current practice of different axle load and gross vehicle mass (weight) limits among the Partner States is one of the major factors impeding efficient transport within the region.
The application of different procedures and basis on axle load control has also been raised as a major challenge at past EAC Ministerial Council Meetings and EAC Secretariat has been mandated by Council to fast track this study to empower it to consider the matter comprehensively.
Against this background, the EAC approached JICA to assist in developing a harmonized framework for axle load and gross vehicle mass limits in the region. This Study was launched in December 2010 to propose the harmonization of regional axle load and overload control region.
With the support of JICA, the study is being executed by a team of consultants led by a Japanese firm PADECO. The study is a sub component of the Transport component of the East Africa Trade and Transport Facilitation Project (EATTFP).
Three task force meetings and three stakeholder meetings will be held to discuss the study findings and proposals. The 1st Stakeholders Meeting was held in Arusha on 7–8 February 2011 to review the Inception Report. The 2nd Stakeholders meeting in Nairobi is to review and validate the Interim Report.
The EAC Tripartite Agreement on Road Transport signed by Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in 1998 and later acceded to by Rwanda and Burundi set the stage for application of axle load controls and other harmonized operations to apply across the entire East African road network, from the Kenyan and Tanzanian ports of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam respectively to the hinterlands of Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi and on to South Sudan, Ethiopia, DRC, and southern Africa.
SOURCE
East African Community (EAC)
