A controversial overload limit for transporters in Kenya is threatening to disrupt the smooth movement of cargo along the Northern Corridor — one of the major routes linking the port of Mombasa with landlocked East African Community countries.

Transporters have gone on strike, demanding that the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) shelve its directive of weighing trucks using the axle load instead of the gross weight to determine the maximum weight limit.

The issue has disrupted cargo movement to and from Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, which rely on the port of Mombasa for their imports and exports.

The issue of the axle rule arose more than a year ago when transport companies went to court to block the axle load limits.

They were demanding that gross weight be used in determining the maximum weight (48 tonnes for a six-axle truck in Kenya), arguing that it was not practical to use the axle since the load keeps shifting as the truck moves.

The Highways Authority insists on the axle being used to weigh trucks, maintaining that it is this part of the vehicle that exerts pressure on the road, thus causing damage, and not the truck’s gross weight. The limit for each axle is eight tonnes.

Last week, the transporters lost the case — for which they had obtained a court injunction in September last year — after which the roads agency started enforcing the rule.

READ: Traders want cargo weight laws revised

The Kenya Transporters Association (KTA) then mobilised its members to go on strike, saying it was not possible to operate under the circumstances.

“More than 235 trucks were booked at the Mariakani weighbridge 50km outside Mombasa for breaking the law, with about 1,000 trucks stranded along the corridor,” said KTA in a statement.

Drivers who were held at the Mariakani weighbridge said the rule had been implemented abruptly. Those held at the weighbridge had exceeded the axle load limit by between 100 kilogrammes and five tonnes.

The fines for overloading for first-time offenders range between Ksh5,000 ($60) and Ksh200,000 ($2,380) while repeat offenders are fined between Ksh10,000 ($119) and Ksh400,000 ($4,760) depending on the excess weight.

“I don’t see the logic in charging me for overloading when my truck weighs less than 48 tonnes,” said Alex Rusalika, a driver from Rwanda who claimed he had been held at the Mariakani Police Station for a week.

“There is a lot of bureaucracy since even after paying the fine of Ksh100,000 ($1,190), I cannot move. I have to get the load redistributed among the axles even though I am not allowed to open the container.”

As a result of the strike, movement of cargo from container freight stations (CFS) has slowed in the past few days, according to the operators, with the situation expected to worsen in coming days if a solution is not found.

“Since transporters withdrew their trucks, we have witnessed a significant drop in the number of containers collected from the CFSs,” said Daniel Nzeki, chief executive officer of the CFS Association of Kenya.

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Cost of doing business

The high cost of doing business within the EAC has been attributed to delays along the major transport corridors, contributed to by the slow clearance of cargo at the two ports serving the region — Mombasa and Dar es Salaam — where imports to the five regional countries are landed.

The EAC countries, in February this year, agreed to adopt a harmonised weight limit of 56 tonnes, but this rule is yet to go through the relevant statutory procedures before it is ratified by member states.

Studies conducted in the past on the need to harmonise regulations in the EAC have pointed to axle load as key to reducing the cost of transportation along the corridor.

A recent study titled Harmonisation of vehicle overload control in the East African Community noted that transporting goods from Mombasa to Kampala, a distance of 1,100km, takes about five days, with 19 hours being spent crossing borders and weighbridges.