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SMILE, YOU'RE OVERLOADED

2nd September 1993
Page 24
Page 24, 2nd September 1993 — SMILE, YOU'RE OVERLOADED
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

"Big Brother is Watching you." Anybody who's ever read George Orwell's 1984, a chilling, if arguably inaccurate, vision of the future will remember that line about the ultimate authoritarian state. Of course it could never happen here. Could it?

From next year the expression could ring true for overloaded operators running in Kent. The county council is pushing ahead with a pilot scheme to install cameras on motorways or roads leading out of one of the county's ports. The eyes in the sky will be linked to a sensor pad built into the road surface. When an overweight wagon passes over the pad the miscreant will be captured on film. What happens next is still to be finalised though it's likely that somewhere down the road the overweight wagon will find a Police car already alerted and waiting to take it to a weighbridge to be checked.

So Kent County Council is tackling overloading with technology. Good for them. But who exactly is doing the overloading?

For a start there are many foreign drivers who appear ignorant of UK gross weight limits. According to the most recent annual report from the licensing Authorities more than 16% of all for eign trucks weighed by traffic examiners in the South East and Metropolitan area during 1992/93 attracted prohibitions. The equivalent figure for UK-registered trucks was 4.4%. Of course that's still too many British wagons, and if cameras can help tackle the problem it can only be for the good. According to KCC's freight officer Nick Gallop: "We will be targeting the unscrupulous driver who is dangerously overloaded." Who could argue with that? If modern technology means the guilty are nabbed and the innocent left to go about their lawful business then this surely is a scheme worth supporting. Of course hi-tech cuts both ways. The technology that can catch foreign overloaders can trap speeding British trucks on A-roads. And there are plenty of those judging by the Department of Transport figures released last week. And if Roads Minister Robert Key's recent musings on the feasibility of so-called "pay-as-youspeed" schemes come true then it could result in some expensive toll fees for the heavy-footed. As enforcement methods become increasingly advanced and automated, the margin For breaking the law and getting away with it will also be whittled away. That's progress. But is it progress in the right direction? Will the traffic examiners and vehicle inspectors of the future be software programmers and electronic engineers whose haulier-proof electronic enforcement system sees all, catches all—and convicts all.

A word of caution to all those beguiled by technology. No one's yet made a perfect machine. They make mistakes—especially when they're operated by human beings. Look at the problems currently arising out of dynamic axle weighing cases. The weighbeam may be accurate. But is the weigher? Technology may well be the key to the future. But unlike George Orwell, let's not get carried away with it.


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