Talks on effects of overloading

OVERLOADING trucks have caused serious damage and deterioration to roads and their structures and these have become a road safety issue in the country, Transport Department Secretary Roy Mumu says.
Mumu made the statement during the opening of a two-day heavy vehicle loading workshop in Lae yesterday.
The workshop was attended by representatives from the Transport Department, National Roads Authority and National Road Traffic Authority, transport industry, the Apec Secretariat and the Australian Government’s Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development.
The workshop is an approved Apec transport working group project sponsored by the PNG Government and supported by the Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities and VicRoads Australia.
Mumu said the project was to look at how heavy vehicles were loaded and the importance of loading them properly.
“The former Heavy Vehicle Licensing Act was not properly regulated by the transport industry and the regulators and that has been a concern,” Mumu said.
He said according to the Government’s national transport strategy policy document, dialogue with aviation, maritime and land transport was an important aspect.
Mumu said the previous Heavy Vehicle Licensing Act was repealed and all regulatory oversight of heavy vehicles like driver-licensing and vehicle-registration would now be regulated through the Road Traffic Authority.
He was concerned that regulation of heavy vehicles operating on roads through the provincial traffic registry was non-existent.