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Expect the Land Transportation Office to intensify its anti-overloading campaign
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New LTO chief Jose Arturo Tugade ordered a stronger campaign against overloaded motor vehicles shortly after the road safety advocate assumed his office this week
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LTO and DPWH flagged down a total of 22 motor vehicles as of 12:04 p.m. on November 17. Of this number, 15 trucks were apprehended for violation of the Anti-Overloading Act of 2000
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Three vehicles caught in breach of provisions the Land Transportation and Traffic Code were promptly issued tickets
New Land Transportation Office (LTO) chief Jose Arturo Tugade has ordered his agency to strengthen the agency’s campaign against overloaded motor vehicles in the country.
The order, issued on November 17, is part of Tugade’s advocacies on road safety, LTO said in a statement.
Immediately after getting the order, a combined team of LTO Central Office and LTO Region 3 law enforcers went to the Tabang weighbridge station in Tabang, Guiguinto, Bulacan to conduct a random anti-overloading operation in close coordination with the Department of Public Works (DPWH).
The group had flagged down 22 motor vehicles as of 12:04 pm. Upon weighing, seven vehicles passed while a total of 15 trucks were apprehended for violation of Republic Act 8794, or the Anti-Overloading Act of 2000.
DPWH and LTO’s parent, the Department of Transportation, are the implementing agencies of RA 8794.
Three vehicles that were caught violating the provisions of RA 4136, or the Land Transportation and Traffic Code, were promptly issued tickets.
“We will continue to build up on our objective of ridding our roads of overloaded trucks because they present direct danger against other vehicles plying our roads. Definitely, our operations against overloaded vehicles will continue without letup so that those that those violators will learn to respect our laws on road safety,” Tugade said.
LTO added that no untoward incidents were reported during the operation.
For years, truckers have been asking DPWH to amend the revised implementing rules and regulations of RA 8794 issued in 2013 and increase the maximum allowable gross vehicle weight (MAGVW) of codes 12-2 and 12-3, two truck types that are most commonly used for carrying cargoes in the Philippines.
The Confederation of Truckers Association of the Philippines Inc. (CTAP), in particular, has also been requesting the DPWH to permanently suspend the enforcement of the MAGVW for these truck codes.
CTAP earlier reiterated that even if truckers were given an indefinite period to comply with the prescribed MAGVW under the law’s revised IRR, “there would not be any transport equipment anywhere in the world that will satisfy the gross vehicle weight of 41,500 kilograms for 12-2 and 42,000 kg for 12-3.”
In a position paper submitted to DPWH in 2017, CTAP explained the average weight of containers arriving in the Philippines is 30,000 kg to 36,000 kg, which means if the minimum weight is added to the tare weight of the tractor head and trailer, which averages 15,000 kg, the total weight would be 43,500 kg, an automatic violation of the law.
The confederation also noted that to comply with the MAGVW, “we would need a truck and trailer with a tare weight of around 10,000 kg to 11,500 kg, which would be impossible since the average tare weight of such is 15,000 kg for code 12-2 and 16,000 kg for code 12-3.”
CTAP is proposing that instead of enforcing the MGVW, DPWH should use the requirement of 13.5 tons per axle as the sole basis for the weight limit of trucks “as this is already the norm among compliant truckers.”
CTAP noted that the 13.5 tons per axle basis “will not cripple the economy,” unlike the MAGVW, “which will prevent most truckers [from pulling] out containers from the ports because they will be automatically cited for overloading.”
A proposal for the mandatory weighing of cargoes inside port premises and for honoring or recognizing the results has been made “in order that overloaded container cargo that exceeds the maximum weight shall not be permitted to exit the port premises.”
DPWH enforced from 2013 until June 2021 a moratorium on implementing the IRR on trucks coded 12-2 and 12-3 on repeated requests from truckers. DPWH has not renewed the moratorium since last year after finding out that overloading cases had been on the rise since 2018.
DPWH Bureau of Quality and Safety assistant bureau director Jonathan Araullo had sai earlier that the department is studying the possible updating of the IRR to include new configurations of trucks that are now used in the country.
READ: Anti-overloading law IRR update eyed to allow higher vehicle weight limits
The department is also studying the possible updating of the distribution factor corresponding to inter-axle spacing to allow higher maximum gross vehicle weight limits.
