TRANSPORT OPERATORS’ OBJECTIONS TO WEIGHT RESTRICTIONS

Grey River Argus, 13 October 1948, Page 8

TRANSPORT OPERATORS’ OBJECTIONS TO WEIGHT RESTRICTIONS

NELSON, October 12.

A 75 per cent, increase in motor transport operating costs would result irom the enforcement of the existing axle load regulations, said Mr P. 8. Boyes, managing director of Transport (Nelson) Ltd., addressing the Nelson Automobile Association. He said there would have to be a 75 per cent, increase in the number of trucks on the road and a corresponding increase in the number of men employed in the heavy transport industry. The association was discussing a letter received from the Main Highways Board, expressing concern at the practice of truck operators and haulage firms of carrying eight-ton and nine-ton axle loads which were a breach of the regulations limiting axle loads to five and a-half tons. The board’s letter said there were break-ups of sealed roads because of the continuous overloading. Operators in the Nelson-Marlborough-Westport area were bringing pressure to bear to the end that these loads shall not be reduced to the regulation limit of five and a-half tons. INCREASE TO 8 AND 9 TONS “If the axle loads are now increased to eight or nine tons, the road foundations will necessarily have to be much stronger and more costly, and therefore the average motorist will still further have to subsidise heavy goods haulage”, the letter stated.

Mr Boyes said the matter affected not only the whole heavy transport industry of New Zealand, but the public as well. It was a problem on which the industry had been engaged for about four or five years and very actively engaged in the past six months, since the Transport Department had made it known that it intended to enforce the regulations. His firm alone paid the Government £20,000 a year in heavy traffic fees, petrol, tyre, and other taxes, and another Nelson transport firm would pay about the same amount. The annual expenditure of the Nelson-Blenheim-West Coast highways would be less than £40,000. The question to be decided was whether the transport operators were going to be forced to comply with the axle loading limits that were now obsolete, or whether the Ministry of Works would be allowed to build roads that would carry modern trucks fully-loaded. The economy of the country could not stand an increase of 75 per cent, in transport operating costs, he added, but that would have to be faced if the regulations were enforced. Nelson was particularly seriously affected, because its whole economy was based on road transport, Mr Boyes said.

The association appointed a committee to investigate the matter.