Overload Control Practices in Eastern and Southern Africa : Main Lessons Learned

The prevalence of heavy goods vehicle overloading across Sub-Saharan Africa has been a matter of concern for some time. The overloading leads to rapid deterioration of road pavements and imposes a heavy cost on some of poorest countries in the world. The countries are forced to spend ever increasing amounts on road rehabilitation. Consequently, unless the problem is tackled effectively, there will be no sustainable improvement in the condition of the road network across much of the region. The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Southern Africa Office of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) working under the Regional Economic Communities Transport Coordinating Committee established under the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) Transport Policy Program (SSATP) have identified vehicle overload control as one of the priority areas to be addressed in their 2006-07 work program. The high magnitude of what essentially are avoidable costs due to overloading underscores the importance of dealing effectively with a number of perceived challenges in overload control. In this regard, this paper identifies and addresses various lessons learnt, key issues and challenges, emerging good practice and technical options for dealing with various aspects of overload control in the Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) region as a basis for improving the efficiency of transport operations and facilitating trade along regional transport corridors