OLORUNDARE ENIMOLA
The collapse of the Nigerian railway system, the underdevelopment of Nigeria’s inland Waterways as a viable freighting option and the non-existence of domestic Air cargo services have placed 94 per cent of the burden of freighting cargo within the country solely on our roads.
Overloading of commercial trucks in Nigeria is a serious problem and a normal practice by many logistics and local freight forwarding business owners, Engineer Segun Adaranijo, the Senior Partner at Locus Engineering Contracting Firm, Ilupeju, Lagos said, “Overloading trucks stresses the road structure beyond safe bearing capacity.
In Nigeria, the percentage of overloaded trucks can reach more than 62 per cent of the total number of vehicles plying our highways annually and maybe one of the substantial factors that reduces the service life of the road pavements.
“The over dependence on the road system has contributed to the unceasingly intense pressure on the highways in Nigeria, leading to a major part of the annual capital budgetary allocation being expended on road reconstruction and maintenance.
“This is fundamentally caused by the overloading of heavy-duty trucks and vehicles on our roads, causing deterioration and eventual collapse of the roads.” Engr. Adaranijo stressed.
According to Engr. Femi Idris, member of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, NSE, Ikeja branch, “Highway durability is the level of resistance to wear and tear under accumulative vehicle passage. The force exerted on the road by a given vehicle is related to the vehicle’s weight (load) as transmitted through the vehicle’s axles.”
Engr. Kehinde Ayoola, Controller of Works at Fixdel Civil Engineering Services, Lagos, while speaking at a forum organised for a group of truckers and articulated vehicle owners said: “Today the Nigerian roads are subject to some of the worst form of abuses, especially by stakeholders who are supposed to spearhead the preservation, protection and elongation of their lifespan. For instance, the weight of cargoes driven on the road by operators of haulage services per trip is far above acceptable limits.
“The acceptable limit is 33 tons per loaded truck, but you will find the average truck loaded with cargoes ranging between 60 – 80 tons in transit, exerting immense pressure on the roads and overstretching it beyond acceptable limits.
“Sooner you will find the road becoming depressed leading to cracks that will be aggravated by other environmental hazards like the rain, wind and the sun. The activities of overloaded trucks has been identified as one of the leading causes of road damage and failure which must be addressed frontally”, he stressed.
Ramatu Yar’Adua, former Commissioner for Transportation, Niger State, while speaking to journalists recently said, “On the part of state ministries, individual states are encouraged to embrace best practices and policies that will to a large extent reduce the pressure on our roads; which is the introduction of weigh bridges”.
Meanwhile, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), about two years ago at the commencement of the calibration of the APM terminal weigh bridges in Apapa ports said it has started enforcement of calibration of installed load weigh bridges across the country to prevent avoidable damage of roads caused by overloading which they said was a development in line with the Federal Government’s directive via a letter by the Ministry of Transportation to the agency, but the effect of this is yet to be since then.
The federal agency then said that the government’s aim is to ensure that weigh bridges at the ports and loading bays are fully calibrated, stressing that the task given to the agency was to calibrate weigh bridges for measurement of all cargoes to prevent further damage to roads and its users.
They emphasised step-provided guidelines and penalties for enforcement of the new regime of axle load limits in Nigeria, pointing out that the calibration exercise would be extended to other seaports and oil depots and terminals would help the government get accurate weights of cargoes.
Adding that the Federal Executive Council’s approvals on roads construction and management gave credence to the standards body’s calibration services to ensure the preservation and maintenance of roads for long-term use.
An engineer with the Lagos State Ministry of Works and Infrastructure who pleaded anonymity said, “The provision of good and efficient road networks in a Country defines the level of mobility of persons, goods and services within that country, the more efficient the transport system, the more prosperous the nation’s economy.”
Akanji Samuel, a petrol tanker driver said, “our poor road networks is one of the principal factors why companies are closing down, because in reality the roads are not constructed to standards, deliberately built to have short lifespans and when loaded trucks ply them within a short frame of time they begin to wear and tear.
“The moment the roads begin to wear and tear, navigating them becomes more difficult and costlier, increasing the cost of logistic operations, causing the fall and collapse of many trucks and increasing the cost of maintenance of repairs, but the government will come out to say the trucks are the ones causing the deterioration of the roads.” He added.
Engineer Gbenga Animashaun, Task Force Officer, Truck Owners Association of Nigeria (TOAN) said, “It is unfortunate in this country to find some trucks originally designed and manufactured to operate what we call, single tractor unit, built for lower tonnage haulage, being converted to convey higher tonnage, which the engine capacity, and axle weight cannot support.
“It is also unfortunate that you will still find trucks manufactured and operating from the seventies on our roads. The chassis have been panel beaten, welded and patched in several places, yet you find them on the road still conveying massive amounts of cargo on our roads, in fact it is these trucks you will find overloaded at most times.”
Felix Adejoh, Transport Development Director, Toplex Group, also said, “Haulage companies, in a bid to maximize profits, will agree to subject their frail, old, and weather-beaten trucks into loading cargoes which far outweigh their capacity and without blinking of an eye will put them on the road.
“It has been calculated that Nigeria sunk a staggering sum of over fifteen trillion Naira (N15 trillion) in the development of road transport between 1960 and 1990, which is about 25 per cent of the capital amount expended on capital projects within the period, which clearly shows the importance the government attaches to this subsector of the economy.”
He said with the huge investment on road infrastructure the enforcement against overloading should commence soon in line with federal government directives.
He added that the government should also be worried about the accidents and loss of lives and property due to overloading.
“It is not the matter of having the weight bridges on the road alone, if you go beyond the axle load, sanctions should be applied. Adejoh said.
In an age of deteriorating highway infrastructure and declining budgets for road upgrades and repairs, the sensible thing to do in order to lengthen the lifespan of our roadways would be to shift even more cargo transport from truck to rail and enforcement of weight and Axle load controls on the existing road infrastructure.
It is essential for those responsible for the maintenance of highway infrastructures, Traffic Management Control Agencies; FRSC, VIO’s, LASTMA, TRACE, the Police to monitor and prevent overloading. The excess weight carried by overloaded trucks accelerates the deterioration of the roadway, leading to rutting, fatigue cracking, and in some instances structural failure.
Speaking further, Engr. Ayoola said, “The road pavement is designed based on the cumulative axle load that the pavement is expected to carry during its design life. This is because every axle load impact induces some permanent strain on the pavement which culminates to cause failure.
“Overloading exerts more load than the pavement is designed to carry which leads to rapid and premature failure of road pavement. Axle load survey carried out in 2016 in Nigeria revealed that over 58 per cent of trucks are overloaded and exceed the legal maximum axle load of 25 tons.
The research shows that overloading causes about N215 billion damage to the national road networks. This can be avoided if there is proper law enforcement and proper load controls.
“Overload control helps us to achieve what we call asset preservation. If we reduce overload, we preserve the road infrastructure and prolong its lifespan.
For example, a national road was designed to last for 25years. If we allow overloading by 10 per cent, we reduce the lifespan on the road by 8-10 years. But if we control overload properly, we can easily extend the lifespan by further 3-5 years, said Ayoola.
in 2018, the then Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, said in its official gazette dated February 6, 2018, entitled: ‘Federal Highways (Control of Dimensions, Weights and Axle Load of Heavy Duty Goods Transport Vehicles) Regulations, 2018’; that owners of overloaded heavy duty vehicles that ply federal highways will start paying fines ranging from N1 million to N10 million, the Federal Government has announced.
The FMPWH stated then that the objective of the regulations was to set standards and establish procedures for the control of dimensions, weight and axle load of heavy duty goods transport vehicles plying federal highways and to impose sanctions for non-compliance with those standards.
However, what happened to such laws in the light of present day realities, no one can rightly tell, while the roads keep getting depressed daily.
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