Foreign trucks blamed for ferry overloading
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• The Road Haulage Association has given a cautious welcome to suggestions, following the Herald of Free Enterprise public enquiry, that trucks using RD-RD ferries should be check weighed to prevent ferries being overloaded.
It favours "in principle, any measure which will promote safety at sea", but adds: "It will be essential that the weighing procedures do not cause delays for commercial vehicles."
The RHA claims that the use of static weighbridges would be too time-consuming, so it would appear that some form of dynamic weighing would be needed.
The association, however, "has serious doubts about the ability to maintain, over a period, the accuracy of the dynamic weighing equipment already in use by the DTp". It also has reservations over the correct execution of the weighing procedure and wants to be consulted before any procedure for more extensive
checkweighing at ports is introduced, Last Friday (31 July) transport Secretary Paul Channon met representatives from the British ferry industries, including the General Council of British Shipping, the British Ports Association and four ferry companies.
Although the discussions centred mainly on changes to ferry design and operating procedure, industry representatives suggested that the only practical way of , keeping track of overloaded trucks is to weigh each vehicle before it enters a ferry, and marking it with a sticker.
BPA director Nicholas Finney says his association has no objections to a weighing scheme, particularly as most ferry ports have weighbridges already installed, as long as any new weighbridges are not located in unsuitable sites — but he says that the biggest problem of vehicle overloading appears to involve foreign, rather than UK operators. Now industry representatives have asked Channon to remind EEC countries of Britain's 38tonne GCW weight limit for trucks.
As we closed for press the BPA was due to see Channon again this week, and the topic of weighing vehicles is likely to be on the agenda.